As the Great Recession gripped California, state revenues plummeted by 20 percent and Capitol politicians and major stakeholders battled over which programs would take the hits.
During this decade, however, a slow recovery from recession and a temporary hike in taxes approved by voters in 2012 have boosted general fund revenues from scarcely $80 billion when Jerry Brown began his second governorship in 2011 to an estimated $116 billion today.
The politics of penury were succeeded by the politics of prosperity, and in many respects they proved to be equally daunting.
At Brown’s insistence – and constitutional mandates – the bulk of the new money flowed to K-12 schools, to paying down debts and to reserves against a future downturn.
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