AT JUST A FEW MINUTES before midnight last night in one of the most critical state budget votes in history, Sen. Dave Cox (R-Fair Oaks) just couldn't contain himself. He needed to poke fun at President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg's admonition to all senators to sit down before voting on three stopgap measures designed to keep our state from running out of money.

"I'm just checking, Mr. President. I'm not trying to be a pain in the butt," he joked.

And then came the 25-14 party-line vote, with Sen. Abel Maldonado (R-Santa Maria)  abstaining, which turned down three stopgap bills passed by the Assembly last week, which would effectively keep the state from issuing IOUs to contractors, the disabled, elderly and the poor. Passage of these bills, containing $3.3 billion in cuts, mostly to education, needed to happen before the end of the fiscal year that ended Tuesday. As the cuts were allocated to the previous fiscal year, the opportunity to save was lost at midnight. According to the Los Angeles Times, issuing IOUs will cost the state another $3.4 billion in interest.

The moment of levity at a time of fiscal calamity irked Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco)  "We're about to lose $7 billion in 6 minutes. ... Folks are joking and it's really just beyond belief."

Later, Assemblymember Sam Blakeslee (R-San Luis Obispo), who helped seal the bipartisan deal in the Assembly  told John Myers of KQED-Radio that he was disappointed in the outcome in the Senate. "The Assembly acted responsibly..."

ON A SIDE NOTE: The governor of course vetoed the two budget bills presented to him yesterday. (See below) No surprise.

A QUICK UPDATE: The record-setting 45-and-a-half-hour death match between our State Senators is over and they agreed on a $41-billion package of spending cuts and revenue measures. Yet ... there is still work to be done. Seven ballot measures will soon be in the hands of voters.

Sen. Abel Maldonado provided the swing vote, invoking the name of Ronald Reagan, of course. (Reagan raised taxes as governor). Maldonado claimed he was defending California from his fellow Republicans. But he got his open primary on the ballot in 2010 and managed to insert a dig at State Controller John Chiang in the budget, too.

The proposed additional gas tax is gone, replaced with cuts and offset by federal stimulus dollars.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the budget on Friday, but not before whacking 10 percent from the budgets of the attorney general, treasurer, secretary of state, insurance commisioner, superintendent of public instruction, controller, and Board of Equalization. Lt. Gov. John Garamendi's budget took the biggest hit, going from $2.78 million to $1.04 million, which will force him to lay off staff. The Department of Corrections also got hit with a last-minute cut of $400 million.

It was not an ideal budget for anyone. It provided $700 million in corporate tax cuts yet took away $8.6 billion from our schools. Sound suggestions by our Legislative Analyst's Office to cut special-interest tax breaks were ignored. Other suggestions, such as those by the Consumer Federation of California were abandoned.

"This has been a long, painful journey," Assembly Speaker Karen Bass said.