What’s wrong with the leaders of the California state government?
I say. It’s a long list. Yet the politicians and bureaucrats who run the California state government have outdone themselves. They managed to go from trumpeting their success to achieving a Surplus of $97.5 billion to sink into a $25 billion deficit hole. It only took them six months.
Cal account‘ Emily Hoeven describes the fiscal boost:
$25 billion.
That’s the estimated deficit Gov. Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers will face when crafting a budget for the coming fiscal year, the nonpartisan Legislative Assembly tax adviser announced Wednesday.
The projection marks a stunning reversal from consecutive years of unprecedented prosperity: California’s current fiscal year budget was $308 billion, fueled by a record $97 billion surplus that was at alone enough to treat every resident of the state. a $7,500 vacation. The previous year, Newsom and lawmakers approved what was then a record $263 billion budget, which included a $76 billion surplus.
The Associated press explains that the whiplash did not surprise anyone. See if you can tell from this excerpt who is responsible for the change in the state’s tax fortunes:
The report came as no surprise to Republicans, who said they had been warning about California’s massive increase in public spending for years, with Republican Assemblyman Vince Fong calling it ‘unsustainable’. .
“Today’s report is another wake-up call to these warnings. We need to refocus on fiscal responsibility,” said Fong, deputy chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee.
Nor was Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration surprised, calling the $25 billion deficit estimate “realistic and reasonable.”
It’s understood? Being $25 billion in the hole is “reasonable.” For its part, the California Legislative Analyst’s Office says the state needs to suspend some of its recently approved public spending:
California lawmakers could potentially cover the entire deficit with money he has in his savings accounts, but the Office of the Legislative Analyst has warned them not to. Their outlook predicts deficits not just for this year, but for the next three years, although the size of the deficit is shrinking each year.
Instead, the Office of the Legislative Analyst said lawmakers should delay some of the $75 billion in one-time spending they approved over the past two years. As an example, they cited a $500 million program to clean up homeless encampments across the state.
Given Governor Newsom’s track record with his homelessness solutions, the Office of the Legislative Analyst is almost saying that $500 million would be completely wasted. For what it’s worth, Newsom seems to agree.
But if they were really serious about fixing California’s projected budget deficits, it might make more sense to start by cutting pension benefits for state politicians and bureaucrats. Shouldn’t the people most responsible for burning through a $100 billion surplus in six months be the first to feel the pain of spending cuts to fix the deficit they left behind?