2021:California has a staggering $75.7B budget surplus
 

Wow, I did not expect this. California is doing really well even with the impact of corona virus on the service, tourism industry and decline in immigration.

SACRAMENTO — California expects a staggering $75.7 billion surplus despite a year of pandemic closures — an amount that surpasses most states' annual spending and prompted Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday to propose sending cash back to residents as he faces a recall election.

California's coffers are bulging thanks to the high-flying Silicon Valley, surging stock market and a large share of professionals who were able to continue working remotely during Covid-19. The state has a progressive income tax structure that leans heavily on top earners, allowing the state to enjoy record revenues despite widespread job losses in the travel and service industries that have kept California's unemployment rate among the nation's highest.

https://www.politico.com/states/cali...urplus-1381195

Credit to state capital gains taxes in a year that was extremely volatile in the most wealthy state in the union?

And Newsom, who is facing a recall election, wants to bribe return to voters taxpayers $12 billion of it.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/wi...rs-01620691772

Probably not capital gains last year, at least from stocks--those will come this year. Although many people had large unrecognized gains last year, much of it is being recognized this year and last year they would have also had losses from the spring to write off against them.

Some people who moved and sold homes they may have owned for many years probably would have had gains on those homes. And a lot of it is other forms of income but also $28 billion in federal "stimulus" the Dems insisted the state needed so badly last summer. Newsom's ally Nancy Pelosi in effect is helping him win the recall by having the feds provide his with cash to hand out.

There's the money for California's high-speed rail project.

It has nothing to do with Newsom's recall election, which he has no chance of losing. Is that the right wing narrative making the rounds?

good idea - that will cover it!

Well, he is preferable to the freak show on the right, that guy traveling the state with the bear? Cringe. That lady who is like Lauren Boebert Jr. No thanks. I think I'll stick with Zaddy Newsom.

It's the same right wing narrative that constantly claims CA is "bankrupt" and "mismanaged". Yeah, $76 billion surplus really screams imminent bankruptcy.

There's the money to solve the states housing and homeless crisis, but we know it'll get a few billion thrown that way and they'll toot their own horn on how they succeeded in approving ALMOST 10,000 affordable housing units!

BTW, Newsom promised to build 3.5M new housing across the state when he was elected during the housing crisis, but his 1st term is pretty much over with nothing to show for that original plan, nor any mention of any timeline.

That too.

If he made this a main focal point of his administration from this point forward, I would be estatic. This is the main reason I voted for him, he promised 3.5M houing units and I am livid that he hasnt delivered anything on that, but I give him a pass due to the pandemic.

Good for the citizens of California.

Newsom will definitely capitalize on this for the recall election. Why does California even have a recall system if a minority can initiate an election and waste taxpayer money??

The state legislature needs to act to force cities and counties to build more. But selfish NIMBYs are preventing a lot of housing construction and policies from getting passed.

No. It's the obvious interpretation of what he's doing: Giving money to potential supporters at just the right time. Why should those who never lost their jobs and continued to make $75,000 per year through the pandemic be handed a check? I could agree to the state supplementing unemployment benefits just as I have agreed with the feds doing that, but these repeated handouts to the fully employed make no sense except efforts to seek potential votes with cash pay-outs.

CA already has one of the most progressive income taxes in the country. Taxing people who make over $75,000 (which makes you barely middle class in coastal CA) to hand checks to those making under that amount in effect just increases the progressivity of the income tax even more.

Because it's not a waste of taxpayer money. Newsom will probably win this one because there's really no viable opponent but the most recent past recall election was successful, putting Schwarzenegger in office and tossing Gray Davis out.

In that case, although it took only a minority to force the election to happen, a majority evidently thought the governor should go (which, of course, we wouldn't have known had we not had the election).

CA has never been close to bankruptcy. It's debt has never been even a double digit percentage of the state gross product and it cannot, under its Constitution, run a budget deficit.

All that ever has happened is the legislature failed on several occasions to pass a budget on time because it takes a super-majority and although the Dems had a majority, they needed a few Republican votes for a super-majority and wouldn't compromise enough to get them. When the fiscal year ends with no new budget, the state cannot spend money and must pay its bills with IOUs (state warrants) which it has always quickly redeemed (paid off in cash with interest) as soon as the budget was passed.

Except there's not even a mention of using it for that purpose--only for more social handouts.

totally agree.

I went to a public hearing in San Mateo a few years back where people were protesting with signs to preserve the suburban nature of town"--I was like huh? San Mateo is building a ton of high density and is a major commuter crossroads on the Peninsula, what is this opposition?? And the thinly veiled comments pissed me off "we dont want to be urban like Oakland', I thought as if you ever could, twot.

This attitude is very common among the NIMBYs.