A growing number of California voters believe the chronic state budget deficit is a serious problem and lack faith in the ability of the state's political leadership to do anything about it, according to a new Field Poll.

The poll also found voter approval of the job that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature are doing continues to decline.

Field Poll director Mark DiCamillo said voters are becoming increasingly frustrated by the Legislature's inability to pass the budget on time or close the $15 billion deficit.

“The public has growing concerns about the budget and less confidence that the Legislature and the governor are up to the task,” DiCamillo said.

The poll showed that 68 percent of the state's registered voters regard the budget deficit as a “very serious” problem – up from 58 percent in December. That view is shared by voters across the board – 71 percent of the Democrats, 66 percent of the Republicans, and 65 percent of the nonpartisans and minor-party members.

Only 14 percent said they had a “great deal” of confidence in Schwarzenegger's ability to solve the problem, and only 4 percent thought the Legislature is up to the job.

The budget stalemate is taking its toll on Schwarzenegger's standing with voters.

In December, 60 percent of the voters said they believed the governor was doing a good job. Now, only 40 percent do. Only 27 percent said they approved of the job the Legislature is doing. A Field Poll in May had similar approval numbers.

Overall, voters offered a gloomy assessment of where the state is headed.

Only 21 percent said they considered California to be headed in the right direction, compared with 68 percent that said the state was on the wrong track.

Voter assessment of the direction of the state has not been that low since 2003, during the height of the Gray Davis recall campaign and, before that, during the recession of the early 1990s.

The Field Poll is based on telephone interviews with 809 registered voters conducted July 8-14. It has a margin of error of 3.9 percentage points.