In today's newscast:
Santa Cruz County marks National Public Works Week
In a proclamation, the Board of Supervisors recognized the people behind services like building bridges and maintaining sewer systems.
The county says it’s honoring all public works professionals.
LAO warns California is unprepared for future budget deficits
Gov. Gavin Newsom says his latest proposed budget zeroes out California’s deficit for the next two years. But Laura Fitzgerald with our partner CapRadio reports that experts at the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office warn the state still isn’t prepared for likely future shortfalls.
Newsom said the state faced a $2.9 billion deficit back in January. But, state revenues will be much higher than expected thanks to the booming stock market and a flourishing artificial intelligence industry.
With an additional $16.5 billion in revenue, the state won’t face a shortfall for the next two years.
Gabriel Petek with the LAO said Newsom’s current budget proposal is balanced, but warned California is going to have a bigger budget problem in the years ahead if it doesn’t save money now.
"And so our tax revenues have been surging and that’s not a time when we should not be fully funding our deposits to the state Rainy Day Fund and certainly not using them. And that’s what’s happening right now," Petek said. "We think that points to an underlying structural problem."
The LAO recommends lawmakers adopt the proposed solutions in Newsom’s May Revise and deposit $20 billion into the state’s Rainy Day Fund.
