The state budget is an obvious source for anyone interested in how California finances its programs.<\/p>\n
However the budget, including\u00a0the latest version\u00a0enacted in June, is only a rough outline, a collection of suppositions and guesses, some educated, others politically motivated.<\/p>\n
An obvious example is what happened four years ago when Gov. Gavin Newsom\u00a0declared that California had a $97.5 billion surplus, bragging \u201cno other state in American history has ever experienced a surplus as large as this.\u201d<\/p>\n
That number never appeared in the budget, but legislators immediately pumped up spending. The surplus turned out to be a mirage based on what officials later acknowledged was a $165 billion error in revenue estimates.<\/p>\n
However, the spending increases were already in effect, leading to chronic, multibillion-dollar deficits ever since. Moreover, one piece of increased spending, the extension of health care coverage to undocumented immigrants,\u00a0cost $6.2 billion more than assumed in the budget, resulting in cutbacks of coverage.<\/p>\n
While the budget itself is an imprecise source of financial information, its\u00a0addenda provide troves of useful data\u00a0for those savvy enough to find them. They reveal such statistics as\u00a0how many employee positions the state\u00a0has (482,088), a list of the state\u2019s\u00a0outstanding bond debts\u00a0($73 billion) and how much the state collects from\u00a0dozens of specific taxes and fees\u00a0($328.4 billion).<\/p>\n
One particularly interesting chart provides details on\u00a0revenues and spending year-by-year, dating back to 1975. It reveals that income, outgo and the size of the state payroll remained stable relative to the growth in California\u2019s population and personal income, until Newsom became governor in 2019.<\/p>\n
Since then, the state has added about 100,000 positions to its payroll, increasing it by one-third, relative to population. State general fund spending rose from 7.9% of total personal income in 2019-20 to 9.58% in 2023-24, the highest ever recorded since 1975. It now stands at 9.42%.<\/p>\n
Those numbers are why Newsom will be leaving his successor a\u00a0very unbalanced budget\u00a0\u2014 no matter what he claims. In fact, one addendum projects\u00a0shortfalls lasting through the next governor\u2019s first term, even if general fund spending remains virtually static, which it will not.<\/p>\n
Those seeking an even deeper understanding of the state government\u2019s financial position have another source: The 372-page \u201cAnnual Comprehensive Financial Report\u201d that the state controller\u2019s office files with the federal government. Its numbers are rock solid because they have to be and are backed up by audits.<\/p>\n
State Controller Malia Cohen issued the 2024-25 report in May, two months after the federal government\u2019s deadline \u2014 but that was an accomplishment. The state hadn\u2019t issued a timely report since 2018 because it was struggling with a new financial reporting tool, the Financial Information System of California, dubbed FI$Cal, that was years overdue, many millions of dollars over budget and incapable of generating accurate data.<\/p>\n
The financial report covers a much broader array of state agencies (201) and programs than the budget, and therefore a much larger financial spread: $595.5 billion in revenue and $582.5 in spending \u2014 66% larger than the $351.7 billion current state budget.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Among its revelations is that the state has $176.5 billion in unfunded liabilities for state employee pensions and retiree benefits, primarily healthcare. The report also contains detailed data about taxable sales, personal income and other economic sectors from which the state derives income.<\/p>\n
One chart is especially timely, given the current debate over\u00a0Proposition 40, a ballot measure that would impose a tax on the wealth of California\u2019s approximately 200 billionaires. Opponents of the wealth tax argue it could impel one-percenters to leave the state if it passes.<\/p>\n
A chart on page 322 hints at the ramifications, supporting the oft-quoted assertion that California\u2019s top 1% of taxpayers by income \u2014 about 175,000 people \u2014 generate nearly half its income tax revenues.<\/p>\n
Dan Walters is a CalMatters columnist<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The state budget is an obvious source for anyone interested in how California finances its programs. However the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197069,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[147],"tags":[3868,2570,542,2182,1960,4060,55],"class_list":["post-197068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-gavin-newsom","tag-commentary","tag-community","tag-gavin-newsom","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-newsletter","tag-opinion"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/117135067252561565","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197068\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}