California Budget

Despite a surge of revenues, Gov. Jerry Brown holds the line on spending in his final budget. He says state overdue for recession and needs to build reserves to cushion impacts.

Nothing good lasts forever. That was the familiar message reverberating from Gov. Jerry Brown on Friday as he unveiled his updated version of the 2018-19 state budget—his 16th budget in his final term as governor.

Good Friday morning, California. “We have been in a very long drought. It is my hope that it starts to rain soon,” Sen. Kevin de Leon, a Los Angeles Democrat, told me, praying money will rain on his underfunded campaign against Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Don’t forget your mother. Mother’s Day is Sunday. What to do […]

The candidate for California governor sees a path through the Central Valley to the November ballot.

Good morning, California. Sen. Kamala Harris, contemplating a presidential run, told a New York radio station she won’t take corporate political action committee money. Harris had taken $260,000 in corporate PAC money since 2015. Here comes the flood Get ready for the deluge of campaign ads and the puffery that goes with them. Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, the […]

Good Monday morning, California. Death penalty: What would candidates do A life-or-death decision: California’s next governor could quickly face a stark choice: allow an execution to take place or commute it. As part of our 2018 election guide, which we introduce today, we asked major candidates for governor how they would confront that decision, and compiled their answers […]

Democrat Antonio Villaraigosa apparently believes his path to the governor's office runs through the San Joaquin Valley.

Gov. Jerry Brown faces challenges to convince the Legislature and a skeptical community college faculty that online education is the key to reaching the 2.5 million Californians aged 25 to 34 who graduated from high school but lack a college degree.

California's focus: what to do with an expected surplus of at least $6.1 billion. Republicans say return it to California’s 40 million residents as a nice tax refund. The governor's priority is to fill up the state's rainy day fund. Democratic legislators mostly want to spend it.

A mutant octopus? A psychedelic Rorschach test? The world’s most elaborate Chinese finger trap? No, this CALmatters creation is the California state budget for the 2017-18 fiscal year. Follow its fiscal tributaries from tax revenues on the left to spending on the right, and you’ll see where the state’s priorities lie—all 183 billion of them. […]