California legislators agreed on a budget early today that would end the state’s record 78-day fiscal standoff and start money flowing to public colleges, among other state agencies, and their students. But the budget is likely to face a veto from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Under a compromise, the University of California, California State University, and the state’s community colleges would receive essentially flat budgets during the 2008-9 fiscal year, college officials said. That support is largely unchanged from previous proposals. In one new feature of the plan, the community-college system would receive a cost-of-living adjustment of $38.9-million, or less than 1 percent.

A budget agreement would also provide relief to thousands of community-college students who have not yet received their state grants because the budget dispute has delayed the availability of grant money. Once a budget is approved, system officials estimate it will take at least two weeks for students to see the grant money.

But aides to Governor Schwarzenegger, a Republican, told reporters that he would veto the bill unless lawmakers put stricter controls on future state spending. It is unclear whether legislators have the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Critics of the budget, which avoids tax increases and deep spending cuts by relying heavily on borrowing and one-time revenue sources, said the plan would not deal with the state’s long-term fiscal problems.

“The big issue, and what I think everybody is talking about, is just what a rickety house of cards this budget is, and the concern that all these tough choices have been pushed off,” Erik Skinner, the community-college system’s vice chancellor for fiscal policy, told The Chronicle. —Josh Keller