Gov. Gray Davis and other lawmakers seem willing to wager a whopping $10.7 billion in general obligation bonds that a robust economic recovery is around the corner. This is taking a page from compulsive gambler Bill Bennett's playbook to address California's $38 billion budget deficit.

The governor has consented to the bonded indebtedness ploy and countered with $8.3 billion in proposed tax increases. Although the GOP leadership insists it will resist any such increases, it has bought into the risky debt gambit. Republican lawmakers want to pay off the bonds with existing revenues. Davis and the Democrats would do so with a dedicated half-cent sales tax hike.

Neither solution makes fiscal sense.

California's bond rating, which has taken some heavy hits during the last three years, has bottomed out. Piling even more debt on the backs of taxpayers is especially irresponsible during tough economic times. Ted Gibson, former chief economist in the state Department of Finance, cautions against the gimmickry that got California into this mess. Warning that Davis and the Legislature may be "sowing the seeds of ongoing budget deficits," Gibson worries that California will spend many years paying off the debt being piled up by the budget crisis.

The state's most recent borrowing binge includes the sale of $1.85 billion in pension obligation bonds, a one-time infusion of $3 billion in tobacco settlement funds, dipping into funds earmarked for transportation and recycling programs. Meantime, the state must borrow $11 billion in the next few weeks just to pay its current bills – $7 billion of which is already committed to paying last year's tab. Add another $10.7 billion worth of bonded indebtedness to that pile and, as the late Senate leader Everett Dirksen was fond of saying: "A billion here and a billion there, and soon you're talking about real money."

Dirksen's jibe is germane to California's budget crisis, which cannot be resolved with a charge card. Balancing the books requires a high degree of fiscal discipline. To begin with, spending must be brought in line with revenues. It also means making the structural reforms – revamping the tax structure to avoid boom-and-bust cycles, while guaranteeing local governments the revenues and the flexibility to deliver public services.

Larry McCarthy, president of the California's Taxpayers' Association, put it succinctly: "Borrowing and gimmicks that defer spending obligations are no substitute for financial management." Just as California families cannot keep borrowing to pay for essentials, neither can the state keep putting off its day of fiscal reckoning. If Gov. Davis is serious about getting a credible budget done by June 15, he must be no less committed to delivering the structural reforms that can help prevent future crises.