Newsom announces California budget deficit much larger than previously expected

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) unveiled a revised $306.5 billion budget proposal on Friday, while announcing the state’s budget deficit had grown to $31.5 billion.

This shortfall is about $9 billion more than the $22.5 billion gap he projected in his initial January budget proposal, which totaled about $297 billion. 

“We are walking into a budget where we need to maintain our prudence, and we need to prepare not just for the short term but the medium and long term,” Newsom said at a Friday press conference, where he presented the revised proposal.  

Recognizing the current environment of economic volatility, Newsom stressed the importance of taking that uncertainty “very soberly and seriously as it relates to macroeconomic headwinds.”