SACRAMENTO - Even if voters reject Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's $15 billion bond issue on the March 2 ballot, the state must borrow heavily to get out of its fiscal mess, a top administration official said Thursday.

California has no other option because $14 billion in loans come due in June, said Donna Arduin, the governor's finance director.

"There isn't time to reduce spending, if there is a will, or to raise taxes, if not, to have $14 billion by June." she said. "When you hear people say, 'We don't like borrowing,' there's going to be borrowing one way or another."

As a fallback if voters defeat the ballot measure, the administration is preparing to move forward with a $10.7 billion bond originally proposed by former Gov. Gray Davis, Arduin said. That plan faces legal challenge because it lacks voter approval, but a court has not ruled on the issue.

Without either bond, Arduin said, the state would be forced to resort to emergency short-term borrowing that would cost taxpayers higher interest rates. Thus, she said, the issue is not whether the state will borrow to avoid a June crisis, but how much the financing will cost.

But, Arduin said, voters could prevent large-scale borrowing in future years by approving the governor's bond issue, Proposition 57, and its accompanying measure, Proposition 58, which would require a balanced budget and establishment of a rainy-day fund. Because the two propositions are linked, they must both be approved for either to take effect.

"The only way to stop the state from borrowing to cover deficits in the future is to vote 'yes' to the language that goes along with the bond," Arduin said in a luncheon speech to the California Chamber of Commerce.

Her comments represent the latest tack for the administration as it launches an aggressive campaign for its struggling ballot plan.

A poll released Thursday by the Public Policy Institute of California shows that voters are prepared to back the balanced budget measure but would defeat the bond measure if the election were held today. In the survey of 912 likely voters, 44 percent oppose the bond, 35 percent support it and 21 percent are undecided.

On Thursday, Schwarzenegger and Controller Steve Westly, a Democrat, announced they would lead a bipartisan campaign for the measures. The team will include high-powered Republican strategists Don Sipple and Mike Murphy as well as Darry Sragow, a campaign consultant for Assembly Democrats.

The bond issue is central to the governor's proposed budget for fiscal 2004-05, which he unveiled last week. The budget, which assumes the state receives the bond money, calls for deep cuts, borrowing and fee hikes to eliminate a $15 billion shortfall. Without the bond issue, the governor would have to close a budget gap of about $26 billion for next year.

Schwarzenegger and his allies intend to advocate for the bond plan by focusing on the potential negative impacts if it fails to pass, said Todd Harris, a campaign spokesman.

In his Jan. 6 State of the State speech, Schwarzenegger said the bond issue's defeat would ignite "economic chaos" and could lead the state to a "June bankruptcy." In fact, the state would not go bankrupt.

The governor has compared the state's financial situation to running up a credit card debt. Approving the two measures would be akin to consolidating the debt into a new loan and tearing up the credit card once and for all, Schwarzenegger has argued.

Arduin said Thursday the bond issue would be the best way out of the state's fiscal problems.

"There is no way to avoid there's debt. The governor didn't create the debt. The debt already exists," she said. "One way or another, we're going to have to borrow. ... So what the governor has suggested (is), let's do it the right way."