A quick fix brokered by a high-profile Wall Street bank will put $1.7 million into Amador County coffers that would otherwise have taken years to arrive.

The money in question is some 8 percent of local property tax revenue to be borrowed by the state of California in an emergency budget measure. The fix is a sale of bonds to be issued by a joint-powers authority and secured by the state's obligation to repay borrowed revenue to local governments by 2013. The underwriting bank is Goldman Sachs, which drew scrutiny last fall when it benefited from a federal bailout of a company that owed Goldman nearly $13 billion.

The California Communities JPA will sell state-secured bonds to take financial pressure off counties, cities and special districts.

Amador supervisors voted Tuesday to use the relief method crafted jointly by JPA members - the California State Association of Counties and the League of California Cities.

"Goldman Sachs will find the buyers," said Paul McIntosh, executive director of the California State Association of Counties.

"The beauty of it is the bondholders are holding the bag," said District 4 Supervisor Louis Boitano. "We can get our money now and go on our merry way until the state figures out another gimmick."

Amador sacrifices to bondholders an interest gain of 2 percent per year on the state-borrowed $1.7 million.

Mike Ryan, Amador County treasurer and tax collector, said waiting for repayment with 2 percent interest was "essentially investing in the state."

In 2005, the California Communities JPA conducted a somewhat similar bond "securitization" program for a total of 146 local agencies when the state borrowed vehicle -license fee revenues from cities and counties. This time around, a total of 1,278 local agencies are registered in the program, according to McIntosh. McIntosh noted in an interview that the 2005 relief measure differed slightly from the current one.

"That (2005) was 90 percent," McIntosh said. "This is 100 percent."

In 2005, the state repaid bondholders ahead of schedule, McIntosh said.

California is at risk of lawsuit by bondholders if it defaults, and the state's future "doesn't look rosier in three years," he said.

Goldman Sachs could elect to buy the bonds itself. McIntosh acknowledged that Goldman could afford to bring unsurpassable legal talent to bear on the state government, but said, "There's no way the state would default. We're in line behind schools and general-obligation bonds."

According to Tom Dresslar, spokesman for the state Treasurer's Office, it was not California, but rather the JPA, which contracted with Goldman Sachs.

The bond sale is worth some $1.6 billion overall.

Goldman Sachs recovered $12.9 billion it was owed by American International Group last fall after former Goldman chief executive officer Henry Paulson, President George W. Bush's treasury secretary, administered a federal bailout of AIG.