Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
$31.5B Deficit After a $97.5B Surplus. How Did CA Get in This Mess?
gvw_calmatters
By CalMatters
Published 2 years ago on
June 21, 2023

Share


John Osborn D’Agostino

Jeremia Kimelman
CalMatters

This time last year, there was excitement and possibility over how to spend a record $97.5 billion budget surplus, a shocking figure coming at the end of a bruising COVID-19 pandemic.

But this year, excitement has turned into a fight over what not to cut as the state stares down a $31.5 billion budget gap.

How did this budget whiplash happen?

To understand how the state could, in one year, have a revenue swing of about $128.5 billion requires a look at how the state raises money for the general fund — the big pot of money that funds most state programs — and a few other complicated aspects of how California juggles competing budget requirements.

About the Authors
John Osborn D’Agostino is an award-winning data journalist, web developer and game designer. Previously, he’s worked with The Hechinger Report, EdSource, the East Bay Express, Berkeleyside, and the North Coast Journal. He graduated from U.C. Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism.

Jeremia is a data journalist who uses code and data to make policy and politicians easier to understand. He was previously a graphics editor at the COVID Tracking Project and a data journalist at NBC News covering elections and national politics. He grew up in California and is excited to be back home after an extended time as a New Yorker. When he isn’t on the computer you can find him out in the garden or on a bicycle.

About CalMatters
CalMatters is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom committed to explaining California policy and politics.

 

RELATED TOPICS:

DON'T MISS

US and Russia Hold Historic Talks to End Ukraine War

DON'T MISS

Valley Crime Stoppers’ Most Wanted Person of the Day: Tiffany Evelyn Tate

DON'T MISS

Stock Market Today: Wall Street Nears Record as Stocks Drift Amid Inflation Concerns

DON'T MISS

Hamas Says It Will Free 6 Living Hostages and Hand Over Four Bodies

DON'T MISS

Delta Plane Flips on Toronto Runway Amid Winter Storm

DON'T MISS

Fresno Joins National Protests Against Trump Administration

DON'T MISS

Canadian National Anthem Booed, but Only Lightly, at 4 Nations Hockey Tournament

DON'T MISS

Former Vice President Kamala Harris to Be Honored by NAACP With Its Chairman’s Award

DON'T MISS

‘Life-Threatening Cold’ Expected as Polar Vortex Stretches Across US

DON'T MISS

Where to Chill on the Cheap in the Caribbean

UP NEXT

Valley Crime Stoppers’ Most Wanted Person of the Day: Tiffany Evelyn Tate

UP NEXT

Stock Market Today: Wall Street Nears Record as Stocks Drift Amid Inflation Concerns

UP NEXT

Hamas Says It Will Free 6 Living Hostages and Hand Over Four Bodies

UP NEXT

Delta Plane Flips on Toronto Runway Amid Winter Storm

UP NEXT

Fresno Joins National Protests Against Trump Administration

UP NEXT

Canadian National Anthem Booed, but Only Lightly, at 4 Nations Hockey Tournament

UP NEXT

Former Vice President Kamala Harris to Be Honored by NAACP With Its Chairman’s Award

UP NEXT

‘Life-Threatening Cold’ Expected as Polar Vortex Stretches Across US

UP NEXT

Where to Chill on the Cheap in the Caribbean

UP NEXT

Should Builders Permit Their Own Projects? Post-fire LA Considers a Radical Idea

Hamas Says It Will Free 6 Living Hostages and Hand Over Four Bodies

58 minutes ago

Delta Plane Flips on Toronto Runway Amid Winter Storm

19 hours ago

Fresno Joins National Protests Against Trump Administration

20 hours ago

Canadian National Anthem Booed, but Only Lightly, at 4 Nations Hockey Tournament

22 hours ago

Former Vice President Kamala Harris to Be Honored by NAACP With Its Chairman’s Award

22 hours ago

‘Life-Threatening Cold’ Expected as Polar Vortex Stretches Across US

22 hours ago

Where to Chill on the Cheap in the Caribbean

1 day ago

Should Builders Permit Their Own Projects? Post-fire LA Considers a Radical Idea

1 day ago

I Was a Bad Father. How Do I Live With the Regret?

1 day ago

Royal Caribbean to Launch First-Ever San Diego Cruises in 2026

2 days ago

US and Russia Hold Historic Talks to End Ukraine War

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Russia and the U.S. agreed Tuesday to start working toward ending the war in Ukraine and improving their diplomatic a...

3 minutes ago

3 minutes ago

US and Russia Hold Historic Talks to End Ukraine War

Tiffany Evelyn Tate is Valley Crime Stoppers' Most Wanted Person of the Day for Feb. 18, 2025. (Valley Crimes Stoppers)
8 minutes ago

Valley Crime Stoppers’ Most Wanted Person of the Day: Tiffany Evelyn Tate

45 minutes ago

Stock Market Today: Wall Street Nears Record as Stocks Drift Amid Inflation Concerns

Displaced Palestinians, traveling in vehicles, wait to cross through a security checkpoint at the Netzarim corridor as they make their way from central Gaza to the northern Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025. (AP/Abdel Kareem Hana)
58 minutes ago

Hamas Says It Will Free 6 Living Hostages and Hand Over Four Bodies

A Delta Air Lines plane heading from Minneapolis to Toronto crashed at Toronto's Pearson Airport, Monday Feb. 17, 2025. (Teresa Barbieri/The Canadian Press via AP)
19 hours ago

Delta Plane Flips on Toronto Runway Amid Winter Storm

20 hours ago

Fresno Joins National Protests Against Trump Administration

Team United States fans cheer after their team defeated Canada in a 4 Nations Face-Off hockey game in Montreal, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press via AP)
22 hours ago

Canadian National Anthem Booed, but Only Lightly, at 4 Nations Hockey Tournament

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, boards Air Force Two at the Philadelphia International Airport on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. Harris might have traveled on Friday to Philadelphia or Milwaukee for the umpteenth time, but motivating tuned-out voters in battleground states required something different. (Erin Schaff/The New York Times)
22 hours ago

Former Vice President Kamala Harris to Be Honored by NAACP With Its Chairman’s Award

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend