California, victim to an overwhelming lack of money, has officially started printing IOUs.

Officially “warrants,” the IOUs are being used by the state government to, predictably, promise later payment to everyone from everyday citizens to local governments.

No one in California seemed to want a budget gap fix to come to this, but Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was forced to come up with creative solutions as it became obvious that the state needs upwards of $25 billion.

No other state has ever issued official IOUs before, but this is the second time California has done so since the Great Depression, the New York Times is reporting.

So far, $53.3 million in IOUs has been printed, though this number could grow to $4.8 billion by September.

Seemingly inevitably, the partisan sniping began almost immediately.

Schwarzenegger, on the Democrats:

At the end of the day, they haven’t accomplished anything … So I sent the budget back, doing it forcefully and without any hesitation.

And Democrat Darrell Steinberg, the current president pro tempore of California’s State Senate, on the Republicans:

We did everything in our power to avert the IOUs … This was a strategic move by the governor and the senate Republicans.

So far, the state’s banks have reacted cautiously, some saying they would accept the IOUs until the middle of July.

Even despite the mixed reception in California itself, some seem to think the IOU system might catch on. As Brian Sigritz of the National Association of State Budget Officers told the New York Times,

In the past, there haven’t been many opportunities for states to have to issue them … But now some other states may have to look at it.

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