03/19/2024

News

2014-15 Budget Summary

The state’s fiscal history is riddled with budgets that made permanent obligations— both spending increases and tax cuts — based on temporary revenue increases. After these spikes in revenues disappeared — as they always do— the state was forced to cut programs and raise taxes. This Budget seeks to avoid this unproductive boom‑and‑bust cycle. Instead of using one‑time revenues to spend on permanent programs, it instead uses that money to make the state’s first deposit into its Rainy Day Fund since 2007, repay money owed to our schools, pay off the Economic Recovery Bonds sold to balance the budget in 2004, and make one‑time investments to shore up the state’s aging infrastructure. This Budget also proposes a constitutional amendment to strengthen California’s Rainy Day Fund so we can pay off our longer term liabilities and be prepared for any future decreases in revenue.

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