With Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger cutting $5 billion in direct spending to avert insolvency, it is clear that California’s budget crisis will now have a direct and large cost to area businesses.

Thousands of retail shops and restaurants across the Tri-Counties will feel an impact from the cuts. Ditto contractors and businesses that provide services to state agencies.

That’s the view of Kirk Lesh, senior economist at California Lutheran University, who said in a phone interview that cuts to the state workforce will probably have the single biggest ripple effect.

To view the rest of this column and all other full stories and offerings in the Business Times, see this week’s print version or SUBSCRIBE for $49.99 today.