Jerry Browns Legacy: A $6.1 Billion Budget Surplus in California

[question everything]

Source: WSJ

California Gov. Jerry Brown appears poised to exit office next year with a top political priority in hand: free from the massive budget deficits that had weighed on his predecessors.

Buoyed by tax increases passed under his administration and a strong economy, Mr. Brown said Wednesday that the state is projecting a $6.1 billion surplus for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1.

The governor proposed socking most of the money away in a rainy-day fund whose creation he pushed for in 2014. Nearly 70% of the state’s projected revenue of about $135 billion next fiscal year is derived from personal income taxes, according to the governor’s office.

The state’s fiscal health is especially crucial as it faces myriad challenges: record natural disasters, housing shortages and changes to federal tax regulation—all while it ramps up opposition to the Trump administration on several major policy fronts. Mr. Brown took office in 2011 with a $27 billion deficit and drastically slashed spending. In 2012, he staked his governorship on a tax increase that voters approved that year and reauthorized in 2016.


Read more: https://www.wsj.com/articles/jerry-browns-legacy-a-6-1-billion-budget-surplus-in-california-1515624022

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Yes, I know, the whole story is not accessible to non subscribers, but could not find a similar story with the same headline. Perhaps other can add.

[bronxiteforever]

1. Kick and recommend.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

18. Trumpanzees looking through wrong end of telescope

California is the corpse of a once great state, politically destroyed by third-world immigration.
posted on 1/6/2018, 3:59:38 PM by Dagnabitt

[bronxiteforever]

21. Its amazing how they believe what they want to regardless of objective facts.

[question everything]

29. Right. And California basically has been a one party government

with the Republicans keep losing.

[John Fante]

35. They reflexively post stuff like that

whenever California is mentioned.

[DoubleAgentOrange]

2. Magnificent, Moon Beam

Even if Trump managed fiscal prudence, all the savings would end up with his puppet masters in Moscow, Las Vegas, and Tel Aviv.

[Irish_Dem]

4. Con artists think any pot of money is theirs for the taking. nt

[TexasProgresive]

3. Those tax and spend librals!

How come the rPukes are always the ones who get us in terrible debt and we have to bail us out?

[DoubleAgentOrange]

7. Just like Canada

Our most fiscally prudent leader was the democratic socialist Saskatchewan Premier Tommy Douglas, father of Medicare and founder of the NDP.

He was also one of our countries pre-eminent evangelical leaders and a key player in the Social Gospel movement.

Roy Moore and Trump's Evangelicultists better take note.

[vkkv]

10. I think the GOP methods create distrust in the economy which slows consumer spending. Plus, tax cuts

DO NOT create revenue.. IDIOTS.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

16. Yup. They get cycles backwards. They borrow & spend at top of cycles so they cut at bottom.

Basic economic theory: Government spends in bad times to stimulate economy, and taxes in good times to pay the debt.

RepubliCON dirty trick: Give away money to the rich at the top of a cycle, and then cry about deficits at the bottom as a way to squeeze the poor and middle class and create even greater wealth and income inequality.

[Abouttime]

13. Obamas legacy

8 years of fiscal responsibility and shrinking deficits after babybush exploded the national debt.
Repukes add debt because of tax giveaways to the rich, Democrats come in and clean up the mess.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

20. Bush v Obama. Note Bill Clinton's last budget left a surplus.

[question everything]

30. And right after 9/11 most of us were glad that we had that Clinton surplus

to take care of the initial hit on the economy.

But Bush, like Reagan and like the idiot in the White House now, like to cut taxes and fight several wars.

[Abouttime]

42. Bush doubled the national debt

Obama cut deficits. Obama deserved a Nobel Prize for economics.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

15. That's because RepubliCONs are borrow-and-spend; fiscally irresponsible. Make messes; Ds clean it up

It's the big confidence trick. They say one thing and do another. Their base are easily duped. They think emotionally and are not empathetic or sympathetic. They accuse Democrats of being takers, but history shows otherwise.

David Frum tweet:

"Regular reminder that Donald Trump’s core competency is not deal-making with powerful counter-parties. It is duping gullible victims."

[DAMANgoldberg]

5. Gov. Brown also bailed California out...

the first go-round in office in the Ford, Carter, and early Reagan eras.

[barbtries]

6. some of this should be earmarked

to help people out of poverty and homelessness. when i go back home i can see in these areas things have gotten worse since i moved to NC 10 years ago.

[Turbineguy]

8. Obviously,

they'll need to get a republican in there to fuck things up.

[vkkv]

11. Fotunately, lot's of conservatives are moving OUT OF STATE!

[LenaBaby61]

14. Fortunately, lot's of conservatives are moving OUT OF STATE!

YES!

[beachbum bob]

9. all those taxes...why are conservatives ALWAYS WRONG on economic and tax issues??

ALWAYS

[Bernardo de La Paz]

17. Greed. Those that think can't stop themselves and most CONs don't think. . . . nt

[Sophia4]

22. The taxes were imposed by voters.

Voters voted in a referendum to raise taxes on those who earn the most.

[question everything]

31. And, I suspect that similar referndum in other states would generate

similar results.

[SWBTATTReg]

12. Gotta love him!!!!

Amazing! Perhaps he'll visit us here in Missouri? Maybe stay? Please, please, please!

[Old Crank]

19. Here is another story

Here is a link to the Sacramento Bee.

http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/the-state-worker/article184886288.html

[question everything]

32. Thank you (nt)

[BigmanPigman]

23. I wish the state would use the money for universal

healthcare for the state. And maybe build more desalination plants.

[Auggie]

26. We have a long list of needs

Last edited Thu Jan 11, 2018, 05:10 PM - Edit history (1)

As much as I want public health insurance or Single Payer, I think water infrastructure improvements -- storage and delivery -- is at the top of the list.

[Yavin4]

38. Shore up your pension fund.

If you do that, you free up future revenues for whatever projects you want.

[efhmc]

24. Texas had a surplus until baby bush and GOP

took over.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

25. Democrats raise incomes for ALL racial groups. ALL. More than RepubliCONs.

[Hekate]

27. I love me some Jerry Brown. Fingers crossed that we elect a Dem after he retires...

Stupid term limits. Still, Chiang is already running hard.

[C Moon]

28. How the hell is it that people say, "I'm a fiscal Republican."

REPUBLICANS ARE NOT FISCALLY RESPONSIBLE!!!
All they want to do is feed themselves and others who will feed them again.
They are selfish, callous criminals.
And it is finally VERY obvious that the GOP will put money before ANYTHING—even their own country.

[mulsh]

33. He's been a much better governor the second time. I live in fear of the days he's no longer employed

When's been unemployed I've encountered him all over Oakland. The most amusing times have been at restaurants where he's joined groups of friends but also in local stores. I have eaten with him, shopped around him many times. I have never seen him pay for anything ever.
Which, if a test of a good lawyer is they always have someone else paying their bills, means he's a great lawyer. When he's employed I never see him anywhere but on TV.

The above is accurate but also sort of a joke. I hope Jerry enjoys his retirement but I suspect he'll keep busy.

Another fun Jerry fact. He is the only politician I have ever seen in parking lots and on the streets passing out literature on issues that he is not directly involved in but thinks are important. I've seen him doing that around Oakland since after his first two terms.

He definitely walks and talks the walk and talks with rare enthusiasm.

[question everything]

36. In 1979, or 1980 we flew from Minneapolis to Los Angeles

He was on the same flight. Just walking around, chatting with people.

Several weeks ago there was a profile of him on CBS Sunday Morning, I think. Did not know he was married. And they have some ranch or something where they will retire.

If we could clone him 50 times, this country will be is so much better shape.

[yonder]

34. Tale of Two States:

Jerry Brown's California and Sam Brownback's Kansas.

[Yavin4]

37. CA should shore up its pension liabilities with that money.

Doing that would keep them out of deficits for a long time.

[msongs]

39. excessively high and gouging marijuana taxes will swell this number nt

[CrispyQ]

40. This: "Buoyed by tax increases passed under his administration..."

Growing the economy for everyone instead of pilfering it for a few.

[RandomAccess]

41. Gov. Moonbeam gets the last laugh.

[moondust]

43. "You gotta pay some taxes."

Governor Jerry Brown ("60 Minutes," 12/10/17): The fact is we cut the budget, we raised taxes and the economy roared back.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-governor-whos-castigating-the-president-on-climate-change/