How California’s bursting budget morphed into a $45 billion deficit in just two years

The much-revised 2024-25 state budget that Gov. Gavin Newsom released last week contains hundreds of spending reductions and other actions to close what he says is a $44.9 billion deficit.

Exactly two years earlier, Newsom boasted as the state enjoyed a $97.5 billion budget surplus, thanks to surging revenues from the post-pandemic economic recovery.

“No other state in American history has ever experienced a surplus as large as this,” Newsom said as he unveiled a revised $300 billion 2022-23 budget...