General Fund Expenditures Per Capita have climbed 63.9% since Governor Newsom took office, growing at more than twice the annual rate at which those expenditures grew under Governor Brown (10.4% vs. 4.7%):
Of course, Mr. Newsom didn’t approve all that spending on his own. He was joined by a State Legislature led by former Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon and Senate President Pro-Tem Toni Atkins. Robert Rivas is the new Speaker and Mike McGuire will soon be the new Pro-Tem. Time will tell if they and Mr. Newsom are interested in spending reforms. They should be, not only because California is the rare state to forecast deficits despite economic growth but also because their General and Special Funds spent $1.3 trillion over the past five years yet residents would be hard-pressed to say how public services have improved and elected officials would be just as hard-pressed to account for the performance of those expenditures.
The good news is that even when adjusting for a decline in revenues as forecast by the Legislative Analyst’s Office, General Fund Revenue this fiscal year would still be more than 25% above General Fund Revenue the year Mr. Newsom took office. Ironically, the growth rate implicit in that revenue stream pencils out to the same 4.7% annual rate at which expenditures grew under Governor Brown, another indication that today’s deficits are the result of excessive spending, not inadequate revenues. That should also put the lie to any notion of invading the state’s reserves to address a deficit.
