California’s budget shortfall has the state facing the possibility of even more budget cuts. Instead, California Democrats are considering raiding education funds to keep up their irresponsible spending.
California is facing a $68 billion budget shortfall as Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) prepares to present his proposed budget. This comes as California’s Medi-Cal program is about to spend $3.1 billion per year on comprehensive health insurance for illegal immigrants, including sex-change surgeries, and the state is going to spend another $4 billion, or more, a year on a minimum wage hike for medical employees.
Education spending survived the last round of budget cuts, but the margins for the Golden State keep getting tighter. The Legislative Analyst’s Office mentioned the possibility of education cuts, and a report by the office recommended cutting program funding that hasn’t already been allocated to schools as well as raiding the education spending reserves, which hold $8 billion.
California’s self-destructive spending habits are only going to make the spending problems worse. Offering to cover health insurance for illegal immigrants will only encourage more of them to flock across the border to the Golden State, leading to more health insurance spending by the state. At the same time, the high cost of living and tax burdens are pushing people out of California, killing its population growth and leading to smaller tax pools. More and more cuts will need to be made, and even education, one of the last areas that the state has avoided cutting, isn’t going to be safe.
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It doesn’t have to be this way, though. Spending some $7.1 billion a year, or more, on unnecessary minimum wage hikes that will drive inflation and on sex-change surgeries for illegal immigrants are foolish policies, to say the least. That is especially true when the state is now planning to cut education programs and tap into spending reserves. Kicking the can down the road with spending tricks and reserve spending is only going to lead to this snowballing.
This irresponsible stewardship of what should be the greatest state in the country should be embarrassing, both for the Democrats who run it and the Democrats, such as President Joe Biden, who think the state should be a model for the country. The Golden State is running out of green, and California Democrats aren’t prepared for what happens when the state hits the wall.