Newsom’s dangerous handling of the state’s tax dollars turns a $52,000,000,000 surplus into a more than $20,000,000,000 deficit.

Governor Gavin Newsom is making it clear he does not expect the state’s financial picture to improve during the latter half of 2024. During a press conference about the drought, Newsom was asked by a reporter about how much bigger the budget deficit estimate might get in a few weeks. He sounded like he was eager to prepare everyone for more red ink. “We’re assessing everything in the May revise, including our economic forecast (giggle) which is not necessarily going in the right direction”. The current California budget deficit is around 23-billion dollars. A year ago we had a $52,000,000,000 surplus, according to lao.ca.gov: On May 13, 2022, Governor Newsom presented a revised state budget proposal to the Legislature (called the “May Revision”). At the time of the May Revision, and under the administration’s revenue estimates, we estimated the Governor had a $52 billion surplus to allocate in the 2022‑23 budget process.