California scores staggering $75B budget surplus

What are the odds? Newsom gonna buy dem votes.

California’s budget is in the black — by a staggering amount.

A state that expected perhaps the most severe budget crunch in American history instead has a more than $75 billion budget surplus, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said Monday, after a booming stock market and better-than-anticipated tax revenues over the pandemic-plagued year.

As recently as a year ago, California’s top elected officials were staring into a budgetary abyss that made the Great Recession look like a pothole. Newsom’s office projected a budget deficit of up to $54 billion, or about a quarter of the entire state budget. Legislators prepared to cut state government to the bone.

Newsom said in an address Monday that he would propose using much of the money to fund what he said would be the biggest economic recovery package in state history.

Newsom’s $100 billion proposal would add $12 billion more in direct payments to California residents, including $600 to most people and an extra $500 to families with dependents. The payments would go to families making less than $75,000 a year.

The package also includes what Newsom said would be a major assistance package aimed at helping renters cover 100 percent of their past-due rent. LINK