When Gov. Gavin Newsom declared today that the state will likely receive an extra $42.3 billion in tax revenue over the next three years, thus alleviating a stubborn budget deficit, the inimitable Yogi Berra’s famous observation came to mind.
“It’s like déjà vu all over again,” Berra quipped in 1961, after watching Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris, the New York Yankees’ star sluggers, hit back-to-back home runs.
Four years ago, as the state’s economy rebounded from a pandemic-caused downturn, the state’s revenues saw a brief upward spike. Someone in the administration, perhaps Newsom himself, decided that the revenue jump would be permanent and that it meant a $97.5 billion surplus over several years.
“No other state in American history has ever experienced a surplus as large as this,” Newsom bragged as he unveiled a 2022-23 fiscal year budget that topped $300 billion.
