California uses gimmicks instead of addressing the heart of its budget problem
Dan Walters
March 5, 2025
One of the many gimmicks that California’s governors and legislators employ to paper over budget deficits, thus avoiding real spending cuts or increasing taxes, is to assume some level of savings from making state agencies and programs more efficient.
They will plug arbitrary numbers into the budget from such supposed efficiencies, then, along with other gimmicks, declare that the budget gap has been closed and pat themselves on the back for the feat.
The 2024-25 budget is a prime example of such political expedience. As enacted last June it totaled $297.9 billion, of which $211.5 billion was general fund spending. But the budget assumed that the state would receive $207.2 billon in general fund revenues, so it had a gap to bridge.
Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislators turned to a series of gimmicks and indirect loans to close the gap, including $2.9 billion from assumed efficiency savings in state agencies and state universities.
