State Budget

California could face a $25 billion operating deficit in the 2023-24 fiscal year if current spending levels remain unchanged, according to a November 16 report by the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO). “Under our outlook, the Legislature would face a budget problem of $25 billion in 2023-24,” the analyst wrote, defining a “budget problem” as the situation “when resources for the upcoming fiscal year are insufficient to cover the costs of currently authorized services.” The analyst added: “The budget problem is mainly attributable to lower…

Governor Gavin Newsom signed a $308 billion state budget and several budget trailer bills this week, and the Legislature began its month-long summer recess.

Governor Gavin Newsom this morning proposed a $300.7 billion revised state budget for 2022-23 and pegged the state’s operating surplus at $97.5 billion – a dramatic increase from the $45.7 billion projection in his January budget proposal. Newsom’s revised budget includes what a Governor’s Office press release described as $2.1 billion in new “incentive opportunities for businesses to relocate to California or grow jobs and their economic footprint here from states with anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ+ laws.” “Califoria values make us…

State revenue “could end up $33 billion to $39 billion higher than the Governor’s Budget assumes,” the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) reported April 21 based on tax collections through April 20. “Our estimates suggest that it is virtually certain that collections from the state’s ‘big three’ taxes – personal income, sales, and corporation taxes – will significantly exceed the Governor’s Budget assumption of $185 billion in 2021-22,” the LAO wrote. “Currently, our best estimate is that there will be somewhere…

The state collected nearly $16 billion more revenue than expected during the first seven months of the 2021-22 fiscal year, the Department of Finance reported this week. “Preliminary General Fund agency cash receipts for the first seven months of the 2021-22 fiscal year were $15.954 above the 2022-23 Governor’s Budget forecast of $109.355 billion,” the department stated in its monthly finance report. “Of note, $6.206 billion of this total additional revenue is due to higher-than-expected Pass-Through Entity (PTE) elective tax…

The Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee held a two-hour hearing January 19 to get an overview of the governor’s budget proposal from the Department of Finance and Legislative Analyst’s Office. The meeting in the Senate chambers, with testimony provided remotely and shown on large television screens, was for informational purposes only, and no votes were taken. Senator Nancy Skinner, who chairs the committee, said the Senate’s five budget subcommittees will continue holding hearings through the first week of March,…

On January 10, Governor Gavin Newsom released his budget for the 2022-23 fiscal year, a $286.4 billion plan that proposes restoration of business tax credits (including research-and-development credits) and net operating loss deductions that were limited by AB 85 of 2020. “Taxpayers applaud the administration for making this a priority and sending a signal that California values the importance of R&D,” CalTax President Robert Gutierrez said. The budget also proposes spending $3 billion over two years to repay debt in the Unemployment…

Through the first four months of the fiscal year, state revenue is $15.98 billion ahead of the amount projected in the budget enacted this summer, the California Department of Finance announced in its latest finance bulletin. That amount includes $4.78 billion in unexpected revenue from the 2020-21 fiscal year (which had not yet concluded when the new budget was approved) and $11.19 billion above 2021-22 budget’s projections for the first four months of the fiscal year. For the first four…

State revenue is increasing at historic rates and could result in a $31 billion dollar surplus to allocate in next year’s budget process, and the state constitution’s spending limit “will constrain how the Legislature can allocate the estimated surplus,” the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) reported November 17. The spending limit will be “the key issue” in the 2022-23 budget, the analyst stated. The windfall can be attributed to $28 billion in increased revenue from tax collections as well as federal…

California’s general fund tax revenue is $13.9 billion above the forecast in the 2021-22 state budget, the Department of Finance (DOF) reported October 22. The report was foreshadowed by Governor Gavin Newsom, who cited the $14 billion figure October 20 when he announced that the state government will have another “historic budget surplus” in the next fiscal year. Newsom said that when he releases his 2022-23 budget proposal in January, “I’ll be announcing another historic budget surplus, record reserves, paying…