Tonight, on The Real Issue, we will pick up where we left off a few weeks ago, and that is with the so-called May Revise. As a reminder, this time of year, across the state of California, governing bodies at all levels are preparing their budgets. At the state level, the Governor submits a draft budget in January, and then in May, with theoretically more accurate revenue projections, the governor submits a REVISED budget, called the May Revision, or for short, the May Revise.
Last year at this time, here on The Real Issue, we discussed the projections that there would be a $54 billion shortfall in the budget as a result of the recession expected as a result of the global pandemic. But, even with the COVID recession, Governor Newsom recently announced an unexpected $76 billion budget surplus.
On May 14th, Governor Gavin Newsom released his revised budget proposal, calling it the ‘California Comeback Plan’, for the upcoming fiscal year that starts on July 1st. For the largest state in the union, California’s projected budget is almost $286 billion, which is an increase of more than 33% of the current budget.
Two weeks ago on The Real Issue, Scott Graves, Director of Research at the California Budget and Policy Center, explained that this surplus resulted from the wealthiest Californians seeing their income grow over this last year, even while the vast majority of workers saw a reduction in their wages and even loss of employment completely.
So, for the first half of this program, we will talk about the governor’s proposed budget, including where he wants to spend this unexpected revenue, as it relates to climate change and natural resources protection. Then, during the second half of The Real Issue, Ed Mayer, executive director at the Housing Authority of the County of Butte, will talk about how the governor’s revised budget proposal addresses the statewide homeless crisis and lack of affordable housing.
