9:48 p.m.LOS ANGELES - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger pitched the measures on Tuesday's special election ballot as a short-term patch for the state's budget deficit and a long-term fix for a broken budgeting system.

Now, the governor faces problems on both fronts, after voters rejected four of five of the budget-balancing measures on the ballot. One remained undecided but was effectively moot.

"Tonight we have heard from the voters and I respect the will of the people who are frustrated with the dysfunction in our budget system," Schwarzenegger said in a statement late Tuesday. "Now we must move forward from this point to begin to address our fiscal crisis with constructive solutions."

The failure of the measures means California's budget deficit will grow by nearly $6 billion above the current $15.4 billion deficit, forcing Schwarzenegger to make further cuts to state programs already facing major rollbacks.

And because of the failure of Schwarzenegger's lynchpin measure, Proposition 1A, the fiscal roller coaster he has complained about since taking office is likely to continue, potentially undermining any other policy initiatives he would like to pursue during his remaining months in office.

That measure would have created a stronger rainy day fund for troubled times and capped state spending, while extending a series of tax increases lawmakers approved earlier this year.

The budget package signed by Schwarzenegger earlier this year that put the measures on Tuesday's ballot already raised taxes by $12.8 billion and cut $15 billion from state programs.

Voters also hold a low opinion of the Legislature and Schwarzenegger, who spent Election Day in Washington, D.C., where he joined a White House announcement of new auto requirements that will increase fuel-efficiency standards and reduced greenhouse gas emissions.

Schwarzenegger explained his decision to leave California by saying that President Barack Obama had asked him to be there for the announcement. The new auto rules were in response to a California clean-air regulation that the federal government previously had blocked the state from implementing.

"It was important to come here since California was the motivating force behind this agreement in the first place," Schwarzenegger said in a telephone interview. "We've been fighting that battle for seven years, playing the role of David here."

He was scheduled to return to California on Wednesday to meet with lawmakers and discuss options for the budget.

During his campaigning throughout California, the Republican governor encountered voters frustrated with the state's persistent budget problems. Voters have told him they want to know why he hasn't solved California's fiscal problems, as he promised to do when he was elected in the 2003 recall of Gov. Gray Davis.

Schwarzenegger has urged them to look beyond the immediate crisis. He has focused most of his energy on Proposition 1A, which would implement a state spending cap and rainy day fund in exchange for temporary tax increases.

That's the kind of reform California must have to avoid "being the poster child of dysfunction," he said.

"The people should know that this is about California's legacy," he said over the weekend at a Los Angeles-area church. "This is about California's future."

But voters also have heard this before. They took Schwarzenegger's advice in 2004 and voted for a rainy day fund, with the governor saying it would smooth out the wild swings in California's budget process.

Voters' antipathy about being asked again to decide state budget issues in a non-election year is reminiscent of 2005's special election, when a slate of Schwarzenegger reform efforts went down to defeat.

Even so, Californians will look to Schwarzenegger to lead them out of the state's latest fiscal disaster, said Barbara O'Connor, director of the Institute for the Study of Politics and Media at Sacramento State University.

"And they're going to have to listen the day after the election because the state's going to be out of money," she said.

Associated Press Writer Kevin Freking in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.