If you’re looking for financial planning advice, looking to anyone in government is generally not advisable. In light of what’s happened with California’s budget over the last 30 days, you should absolutely avoid the people who forecast revenue for the State of California. They’re the Jim Cramer of revenue forecasting, it seems, having missed income tax revenue projections by $26 billion.
Now that all of the revenue numbers are in, the state Legislative Analyst’s Office reported on December 7 that the state faces a $68 billion budget shortfall next year assuming spending levels “under the state’s current law and policy.” In a blog post the week before that, which now seems like an expectation-setting ploy, they’d hinted at a $58 billion budget shortfall; in the 2022-23 budget year legislators and Gov. Gavin Newsom struggled to fill a $31.5 billion budget gap.
Without a massive…
