Walters: Could taxing multinational corporations erase California’s budget deficits? Not likely

The state budget’s chronic gaps between income and outgo — $125 billion over the last few years, according to the Legislature’s fiscal advisor — have left Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislators scrambling for ways to clean up the state’s finances.

Newsom has so far shunned new taxes to close the gap, even trying to sidetrack a tax on the assets of billionaires that may appear on the November ballot. Union advocates say it would generate about $25 billion a year for four years, roughly the size of California’s projected deficits...