{"id":497211,"date":"2021-05-11T17:20:57","date_gmt":"2021-05-11T21:20:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=497211"},"modified":"2021-05-11T17:20:59","modified_gmt":"2021-05-11T21:20:59","slug":"no-californias-budget-surplus-isnt-due-to-progressive-tax-policies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/no-californias-budget-surplus-isnt-due-to-progressive-tax-policies\/","title":{"rendered":"No, California\u2019s Budget Surplus Isn\u2019t Due To Progressive Tax Policies"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fno-californias-budget-surplus-isnt-due-to-progressive-tax-policies%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=497211&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/GettyImages-1311147763.jpg?w=1200&#038;h=800&#038;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"  style=\"display:none\"><\/div>\n<p>California Governor Gavin Newsom announced on Monday that the Golden State has $75.5 billion in excess funds, something he believes is due to a \u201csignificant windfall of tax revenues.\u201d According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/amid-recall-threat-ca-gov-newsom-unveils-largest-state-tax-rebate-in-american-history\">The Daily Wire<\/a>, Newsom plans to provide Californians with a tax rebate.<\/p>\n<p>Of that money, $5.2 billion will be used to cover back-rent and rent for months in the future. Another $2 billion will be used to pay overdue water and electric bills, the governor said in a tweet.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\" readability=\"13.473354231975\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">NEW: CA is delivering immediate relief to renters through the largest renter assistance package in the COUNTRY:<\/p>\n<p>$5.2 billion for renters to cover their back-rent AND their rent for several months into the future.<\/p>\n<p>And $2 billion to help pay overdue water and utility bills. \ud83d\udc4f<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GavinNewsom\/status\/1391845122828951554?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 10, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Some Californians will also qualify for another round of the \u201cGolden State Stimulus,\u201d as The Daily Wire reported:<\/p>\n<blockquote readability=\"11\">\n<p><em>Newsom\u2019s California Comeback Plan still requires approval from the Legislature. It would provide a second round of direct $600 stimulus checks to low-income and middle-class households that make up to $75,000 a year, including undocumented families. He estimates two-thirds of Californians would benefit from the payments. Qualified households with dependents would be eligible for an additional $500, along with an extra $500 in direct payments to undocumented families.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Illegal aliens are also eligible for $1,000 family checks since they were ineligible for the multiple rounds of federal stimulus checks.<\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california\/story\/2021-05-10\/gavin-newsom-new-stimulus-checks-californians-rent-assistance\">The Los Angeles Times<\/a>, the reason Newsom\u2019s administration is cutting the checks is because of a \u201cstate constitutional amendment that requires tax rebates when revenues exceed a cap on government spending.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But the state has excess funds, predominantly because of the various federal stimulus bills that were passed. After the CARES Act passed in March of 2020, California received $15.3 billion in stimulus funds.<\/p>\n<p>In December 2020, California received $50 billion in federal stimulus funds, <a href=\"https:\/\/calmatters.org\/politics\/2020\/12\/federal-stimulus-package-california\/\">Cal Matters<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n<p>When the latest stimulus bill was passed in March 2021, California received an additional $26 billion in federal funds, the state\u2019s Legislative Analyst\u2019s Office (LAO) said in a March <a href=\"https:\/\/lao.ca.gov\/Publications\/Report\/4407\">report.<\/a> But the extra cash was unnecessary.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe pot of stimulus money going to the state government, $26 billion, was so large that officials here were put on the defensive after they revised the state\u2019s budget projection at the beginning of the year. They had been expecting <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" title href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/05\/26\/us\/coronavirus-california-economy.html\">a daunting $54 billion deficit last year<\/a>. Instead, state officials in January projected a $15 billion surplus,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/03\/16\/us\/ca-federal-stimulus.html\">The New York Times<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n<p>Newsom can claim this additional funding suddenly happened solely because of a wealth tax, despite a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wbur.org\/onpoint\/2021\/02\/11\/whats-driving-californias-exodus\">record number<\/a> of people fleeing the Golden State.<\/p>\n<p>There are a couple of major points that resulted in the surplus:<\/p>\n<p>1. Former Governor Jerry Brown cut taxes and issued budget cuts, which resulted in the state\u2019s first budget surplus in more than a decade, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2018\/06\/27\/californias-fiscal-risks-despite-largest-surplus-in-more-than-decade.html\">CNBC<\/a> reported in 2018. The surplus sat at $9 billion after Brown signed his last budget that year. That surplus continued into 2019 with $21 billion in the bank, at which point Newsom <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mercurynews.com\/2019\/06\/10\/california-state-taxes-budet-surplus-21-billion\/\">upped<\/a> taxes to the tune of $2 billion. The state\u2019s surplus would have likely continued, assuming Brown\u2019s budget cuts and Newsom\u2019s taxes remained intact.<\/p>\n<p>2. The virus caused the state to dip back into the red. The federal stimulus packages over the last 14 months not only replenished what the state lost due to COVID \u2014 it meant the Golden State effectively came out with a bailout.<\/p>\n<p>Over the course of the stimulus packages, California received $91.3 billion in funds from the federal government.\u00a0 If the state came out with a budget surplus close to what they had in 2019, which was $21 billion, the \u201csurplus\u201d that California currently enjoys isn\u2019t really a surplus at all. It\u2019s a pool of taxpayer funds from Americans across the country.<\/p>\n<p>The notion that Newsom is somehow returning money back to Californians\u00a0 \u2014 money they paid through taxes \u2014 is absolutely false. It\u2019s setting Californians up for failure down the road, especially once the pandemic is officially over<\/p>\n<p>When the COVID pandemic is over, the wads of cash stemming from the federal government will come to a halt as well. That spells disaster, not just for Californians, but also for whoever the next governor is. He or she will have to right Newsom\u2019s wrong and admit the surplus was a result of Americans\u2019 collective federal taxes, not the Golden State\u2019s progressive taxes. It means Californians will have to find a new way to fund their progressive agenda. The buck stops with Middle America.<\/p>\n<p><i>Beth Baumann is a Political Reporter and Editor at The Daily Wire. Follow her on Twitter\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/eb454\"><i>@eb454<\/i><\/a><i>.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>The views expressed in this piece are the author\u2019s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><i>member<\/i><\/a><i>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>California Governor Gavin Newsom announced on Monday that the Golden State has $75.5 billion in excess funds, something he believes is due to a \u201csignificant windfall of tax revenues.\u201d According &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2277841,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/GettyImages-1311147763.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"No, California\u2019s Budget Surplus Isn\u2019t Due To Progressive Tax Policies","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-497211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/GettyImages-1311147763.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"No, California\u2019s Budget Surplus Isn\u2019t Due To Progressive Tax Policies","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=497211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2277841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}