XPost: alt.politics.republicans, talk.politics.misc, alt.politics.economics   
   XPost: sac.politics, talk.politics.guns   
   From: leroysoetoro@americans-first.com   
      
   https://calmatters.org/commentary/2026/02/newsom-spending-california-   
   chronic-deficit/   
      
   An array of charts buried in the fine print of the state budget, unknown   
   to all but a few fiscal nerds, details what California has collected in   
   revenues and spent over the last half-century.   
      
   The current charts in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed 2026-27 budget reveal   
   how spending has exploded during his governorship, far outstripping   
   stagnant population growth, inflation and even a hefty increase in   
   revenues.   
      
   The result, according to both Newsom’s Department of Finance and the   
   Legislative Analyst Office, is a multibillion-dollar “structural deficit,”   
   meaning that revenues cannot cover spending that Newsom and the   
   Legislature have enacted.   
      
   “Both our office and the administration expect the state to face multiyear   
   deficits, with estimates ranging from $20 billion to $35 billion   
   annually,” Legislative Analyst Gabe Petek says in his overview of the   
   proposed budget.   
      
   “These deficits are concerning for three reasons. First, after four years   
   of projected deficits and a cumulative total of $125 billion in budget   
   problems solved so far, the state’s negative fiscal situation is now   
   chronic.   
      
   “Second, structural deficits have grown — our November outlook is the most   
   negative forecast of the budget’s position since the pandemic. Finally,   
   deficits have persisted even as the state’s economy and revenues have   
   grown, underscoring that the problem is structural rather than cyclical.   
   Taken together, these trends raise serious concerns about the state’s   
   fiscal sustainability.”   
      
   The budget’s historic charts are important because they support Petek’s   
   deficit warning and undercut politicians’ temptation to shift the blame to   
   economic conditions, emergencies such as the Los Angeles wildfires or   
   reductions in federal aid by President Donald Trump.   
      
   Here’s what one chart reveals:   
      
   In the seven budgets Newsom has signed, beginning with 2019-20, and the   
   eighth one he has proposed, revenues have increased by 60%, mostly from   
   taxes that tapped into a 48% increase in Californians’ personal income   
   during the period. Total spending, however, jumped 72%, from $203 billion   
   to $349 billion.   
      
   During that same period, the state’s population has been stagnant at 39.6   
   million while inflation at the national level has been 29%, averaging 3.4%   
   a year, with California’s inflation slightly lower at about 3%.   
      
   In other words, revenues have increased at roughly twice the rate of   
   inflation while spending has jumped even higher.   
      
   Those numbers are reflected in a nearly 28% increase in the state’s   
   workforce, from 376,990 to 481,850, as the budget expanded programs that   
   were in place when Newsom became governor and added new categories.   
   Spending on health care, especially for low-income Californians, has been   
   one major driver, while constitutional formulas for financing public   
   schools have been another.   
      
   Another chart provides a clue to the massive error in revenue projections   
   by Newsom’s budget staff in 2022 which sparked the spending surge.   
      
   In 2021, as the state’s economy began recovering from the COVID-19   
   pandemic shutdown and as billions of dollars in federal relief flooded the   
   state, general fund revenues jumped 53% above the pre-pandemic 2019 level,   
   topping $200 billion for the first time in history.   
   For reasons known only to themselves, Newsom and his aides assumed that   
   the new revenues figure would be at least semi-permanent. It fueled   
   Newsom’s claim, as the 2022-23 budget was being finalized, that the state   
   enjoyed a $97.5 billion surplus, and his bragging that “no other state in   
   American history has ever experienced a surplus as large as this.”   
      
   Newsom’s declaration fueled an immediate spending increase that carried   
   into the following years. But the projected revenue increase turned out to   
   be an illusion, and subsequently the administration acknowledged that it   
   had over-estimated revenues by $165 billion over four years.   
      
   The structural deficit has been with us ever since, totaling $125 billion   
   so far, as Petek describes. Newsom clearly envisions a presidential   
   campaign after his governorship ends, but the self-inflicted budget mess   
   may haunt him.   
      
      
   --   
   November 5, 2024 - Congratulations President Donald Trump.  We look   
   forward to America being great again.   
      
   We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that   
   stupid people won't be offended.   
      
   Every day is an IQ test. Some pass, some, not so much.   
      
   Thank you for cleaning up the disasters of the 2008-2017, 2020-2024 Obama   
   / Biden / Harris fiascos, President Trump.   
      
   Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the   
   The World According To Garp.  Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood   
   queer liberal democrat donors.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)