Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association President Jon Coupal released the following statement today in response to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s budget proposal:
While the actual budget won’t be seen until after state leaders finish negotiating it in secret, Gov. Newsom’s gleeful announcement to reporters of how he would like to spend the state’s $95.7 billion windfall of other people’s money still needs a reality check. The discretionary “surplus” is closer to $49 billion, and the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office has described the governor’s budget proposals as “likely unsustainable.”
Instead of spending potentially one-time monies on a grab-bag of progressive proposals, the Governor and the Legislature should pay down our trillion-dollar unfunded liabilities, return excess revenue to the taxpayer and heed the LAO’s advice to use this “moment of strong tax collections to enhance its fiscal resilience.” Anything less would be fiscally irresponsible.
###