Tab for Budget Delay: $50 Million a Day

As the debate over the state's budget once again drags on in Sacramento -- state leaders have missed the Wednesday deadline for the seventeenth time in the last twenty years -- the delay is costing the state.

Starting Thursday, and every day without a new budget deal after that, the state is estimated to face over $50 million in associated costs according to Treasurer Bill Lockyer.

That's on top of the $20 billion deficit negotiators are trying to solve.

The costs come in the form of bond rating downgrades, which would increase the cost for the state to borrow money.

"Every day without a credible plan brings us closer to deterioration of the state’s credit rating and the humiliation of IOUs," Lockyer said in a prepared statement.

Last year, the state had to issue IOUs to cover costs over the summer.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recently threatened to start paying state employees minimum wage if a deal wasn't passed by the legislature.

That threat has been taken off the table by negotiators representing Schwarzenegger thanks to pension concessions from some unions.

Democrats in the State Assembly and Senate say that they should have a budget proposal to submit as soon as next week.

Jackson West figures somehow Proposition 13 is to blame.