As usual, the state legislature has been unable to enact a budget for the fiscal year that started on July 1 and, as we approach Sept. 1, the state has stopped spending money and has ceased paying for services which the powers-that-be feel we, as Californians, do not absolutely need. This year’s annual budget crisis is killing a Crenshaw small business and our elected state officials seem unable to do anything about it.

While grieving over the untimely death of her sister, Judy Comer had a vision: To help others who suffer from the loss of family members from drug and/or alcohol addiction. Comer, whose usual professional pursuits were in the real estate business, enlisted her brothers to help make her vision a reality. Using their combined personal funds, Comer and her brothers rented the two-story building on Crenshaw Boulevard that once housed the California Department of Rehabilitation and, with the help of a longtime friend, established the Compassion Care Center Inc. The facility was incorporated last November; the application for tax-exempt status was filed and approved effective Nov. 19; the applications for facility certification and drug Medi-Cal provider status was submitted to the Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs in February. Everything was moving along beautifully, until the siblings ran into a brick wall this month: The state budget crisis.

In order for Compassion Care Center Inc. to open and serve the public, the facility must be inspected by someone from the ADP compliance office. “I was told on Aug. 12 that our application was completed but there were no funds available to send an inspector to Los Angeles because they have no budget,” Comer said. Check this out: Comer’s company offered to pay the cost of the inspector’s travel, and the offer was rejected.

Furthermore, the Los Angeles County Substance Abuse Programs is not allowed to conduct the inspection even though the county is the entity that will issue the contracts for the company’s drug and alcohol treatments.

“It’s costing us more than $10,000 a month to keep this place open and we can’t treat people who are in need or bill for any services until we have been inspected by the state,” Comer said, while holding back tears. “We’ve been in this facility for almost a year and the rent alone has cost us $55,000.”

Never mind that she has more than a dozen counselors and staff members on hold. I, personally, sent out an SOS twice to Assembly Speaker Emeritus and future congresswoman Karen Bass, for assistance with this problem, but to no avail. This is awful. Something has got to give here: either the state gets a budget now, or Comer be permitted to pay the travel costs for a state inspector to inspect her facility, or the county — which will not incur any travel costs — be permitted to inspect the building over which it will ultimately exercise oversight, or we can all just kiss government — all levels of it — goodbye. Do you see why I am an antiestablishmentarian? All government does is take our money and ruin our lives. If I were white, I would probably be a tea partier.

COMPTON PRIDE — Despite Compton’s apoplectic political problems, the residents have something to be proud about: Daphne Sykes Scott, a former Compton deputy city attorney and resident of Compton, will be installed Friday as the second African-American female judge in the Orange County Superior Court. Her installation will take place in the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana at 4 p.m. and will be followed by a reception in that city’s Bowers Museum.

Scott earned her law degree from the City of New York School of Law in 1989 after having graduated cum laude from Spelman College in 1985. In addition to spending five years as Compton’s deputy city attorney, Scott served as deputy district attorney for Los Angeles and Santa Ana, assistant U.S. attorney in San Diego and was a criminal defense attorney in private practice for five years. Huzzah!

DATEBOOK — The GLAAACC Crenshaw LAX focus group will convene Friday from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. to provide insights, opinions and comments about the development of an enhanced urban design, landscape and community linkage plan for the Crenshaw Transit Corridor and Light Rail Transit projects. The firm of McKissack & McKissack is overseeing the design and is working with GLAAACC to learn what the area’s stakeholders think and to hear what they have to say about what the projects should look. The meeting will be held in the conference room at 5120 W. Goldleaf Circle, Suite 10AG.

The Paul Roberson Community Center, 6569 S. Vermont Ave., will be holding its first ever Book Fair and Sale Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Slated for sale are books and pamphlets that run the gamut from Shakespeare to Lenin, from kids’ books to cook books, from Karl Marx to Mark Twain and from play bills to music books. Oneil Cannon, president emeritus of the board, says everything is affordable: think a nickel, a quarter, 50 cents or a $1 for a book.

State Sen. Roderick Wright and Assemblyman Steve Bradford will co-host the kickoff of the Black Babies’ Fatherhood Initiative “Fathers of the Community Back-to-School Walk” Saturday in the Darby Park Gymnasium at 3400 W. Arbor Vitae St. in Inglewood. The kickoff will be held to enlist 300 men to commit to walking a child to the first day of school on Monday.

THIS AND THAT — Jerry Edwards, the Flying Fox barkeep, was honored by restauranteur Hakim Baxter and his partner with a rip-roaring party last week to celebrate Jerry’s induction last month into the Texas Hall of Fame. Jerry is the only athlete inducted in the Texas Hall of Fame from the high school level, as he was singled out for his stellar performance on Houston’s Willis Wheatly High School basketball team in 1948. Also inducted last month along with Jerry were football greats Mean Joe Greene and Otis Taylor.

Pope Benedict XVI bestowed papal honors upon 189 men and women of the Los Angeles Archdiocese last month, among whom was Andrew Shaw, of South L.A.’s Holy Name of Jesus Parish, who was accorded the Pro Ecclesia Et Pontifice Award in recognition of his commitment and service to the ecclesial community. The pope granted the Benemerenti Award for exemplary service to their church, family and community to Deacon Emile Adams and Alberta Magna Gibbs of Transfiguration Parish and to Catherine Brown and LeRoy Titus of Holy Name.

Condolences to Councilman Bernard Parks and his family, whose daughter, Trudy, died Saturday of cancer. I believe funeral services are scheduled for Friday at Holy Cross Cemetery. May she rest in peace.

Please pray for the recovery of our NAACP bon vivant Willis Edwards, who is confined to the VA Hospital and is undergoing six weeks of chemotherapy in a battle against cancer.

AND FINALLY — I am going to Haiti next week and there will not be a Soulvine next Thursday, so don’t get all bent out of shape when you look for it and don’t see it. (Although I like it when you do!) Keep an eye on things while I’m gone. Take copious notes and be prepared to provide complete reports on who said what and who went where with whom. You know what to do. Au revoir, mes amis. Je retrerai dans quatorze jours, avec la guarante de dieu.