California Gov. Gavin Newsom laid out a bleak financial scenario for the state on Thursday with projections of a $54 billion budget shortfall. Newsom plans to counteract steep declines in sales, corporate and income taxes by enacting spending cuts and digging into the state’s rainy day fund and other reserves. Still, his revised 2020 budget of $203 billion represents a 9 percent drop compared to what he proposed in January. Schools and healthcare will bear the hardest hits. Meanwhile, Newsom emphasized that help from the federal government could cancel out those painful cuts even though such assistance looks unlikely. We dive into how the coronavirus pandemic has distressed California’s finances and how the decreased spending will play out.

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Newsom’s Revised Budget Cancels $6 Billion in Planned Program Expansions