California Urged To Come Up With Plan Soon For Historic Budget Surplus

California’s non-partisan legislative analyst, Gabe Patek, has some straight forward advice for legislators in Sacramento when dealing with the historically large $45.7 billion budget surplus: develop a plan for handling the large one time amount before the traditional negotiations on the budget begin in May of this year.

The large sum, largely from the collection of one time taxes on capital gains and other levies tied to profits on investments could bump against the limits on state spending under the Gann Limit.

By the numbers, the tremendous size of the surplus accounts for over $1,100 for each California resident, pointed out State Senator Brian Jones (R-Escondido), who advocated for the potential to distribute the surplus in checks to residents.

“If it’s 2,500, if it’s 1,500, any amount that we can convince the state, the governor, the Democrats in the Legislature to send back, I think is a benefit to every Californian and every California family,” said Jones in a video release.

Work on the Governor’s budget outline of $286 billion in spending, will begin in earnest with hearings in the next few weeks led by recently appointed State Senate Budget Chair Richard Roth (D-Riverside) in the State Senate and in the Assembly by Budget Committee Chair Assemblymember Phil Ting (D-San Francisco).

Current plans for the surplus proposed by the Governor include one time spending on education, public housing, infrastructure updates statewide, and a moderately sized payment to the federal government to avoid requiring the mandatory implementation of up to $420 in per employee taxes on every Californian with a job just to participate in the federal unemployment insurance system due to a decade long deficit the state has run with the national program.