Author Topic: Texas Vs. California Budgets: 2022 Edition  (Read 409 times)

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Offline Elderberry

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Texas Vs. California Budgets: 2022 Edition
« on: November 27, 2022, 11:41:05 am »
Lawrence Person's BattleSwarm Blog 11/26/2022

State budgets for Texas and California are in the news, and once again the two largest states in the union are headed in opposite directions:

•  In Texas, lawmakers are wrangling about what to do with a $27 billion surplus.

The Texas Legislature is in for a fight over how to spend its expected pot of money from inflation-driven record consumption tax collections.

Trying to direct the Legislature and the Texas House specifically often resembles herding cats — 150 members with 150 different ideas on how the $27 billion projected surplus should be appropriated.

Comptroller Hegar indicated this week that the total might grow even more by the New Year. He will provide an updated certified revenue estimate in January.

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•  Meanwhile, California is suffering from a $25 billion deficit.

$25 billion.

That’s the estimated deficit Gov. Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers will confront when crafting a budget for the upcoming fiscal year, the Legislature’s nonpartisan fiscal advisor announced Wednesday.

The projection marks a stunning reversal from back-to-back years of unprecedented prosperity: The budget for California’s current fiscal year clocked in at a whopping $308 billion, fueled by a record $97 billion surplus that was by itself enough to treat every state resident to a $7,500 vacation. The year before, Newsom and lawmakers approved what was at the time a record-busting $263 billion budget that included a $76 billion surplus.

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I don’t think there’s any “if” about a recession anymore.

For a while California’s tech and entertainment industry strengths were outrunning its massive blue state economic mismanagement and green energy delusions. That’s no longer the case.

The problem with the blue state model is that they either run out of other people’s money, or people take it with them when they move before the state can take it away. Still others leave to avoid the outrageous cost of living. No wonder U-Haul ran out of trucks to leave the state.

More: https://www.battleswarmblog.com/?p=53405