Wayne WinegardenEditor’s note: This has been excerpted with permission from the Pacific Research Institute. To read the entire report, click here.
It should not shock anyone that the FY2024-25 budget was short on fiscal discipline and long on budget gimmicks and fund shifts. Now that this year’s budget process is coming to an end, it is imperative to step back and gain some budgetary perspective.
The governor seems to think “this agreement sets the state on a path for long-term fiscal stability — addressing the current shortfall and strengthening budget resilience down the road.” Gavin Newsom’s optimism is unwarranted given the economic realities and state of the budget. Yet, even if the governor does not have to close another large budget gap for the FY2025-26 budget, don’t be fooled, the budget is barreling toward crisis.
This impending crisis may lack the recent drama that the balanced budget requirement periodically imposes. But if the growing problem of Californians paying too much money for sub-par government services is left unaddressed, the foundations for a prosperous economy will be undermined.
An argument can be made that the state’s average expenditure burden – 8.1 % of personal income – has been too high. The even more pressing problem is that California’s current budget is unaffordable relative to this historical level of spending.
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Calif. Dems are counting of Biden-Harris to bail out their state. But it can only happen if the incumbent ticket is re-elected. Not likely.
Newsom’s profligate Buck Burning does nothing for European-Americans. It’s all about driving wedges between taxpaying European-Americans and tax-eating preferred tribes.
I hate to disagree with Mr Winegarden-because I agree with his theme-but California has a lot to show for its spending sprees. Despair, sorrow, and “regret, regret, regret by those foolish enough to vote for Gavin Newsom, and his “used car salesman” con-man gibberish.