California's budget deficit has soared to nearly $32 billion, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Friday as he announced a plan that would cover the shortfall this year while potentially leaving the state with multibillion-dollar deficits in the future.
Newsom, a Democrat in his second term, proposed no major tax increases for individuals or spending cuts across the state's most important programs, including those impacting public education, health care and homelessness. His plan would cut spending by about $10.6 billion — about $1 billion more than what he proposed in January — while covering the rest of the deficit through a combination of borrowing and delaying some spending while shifting other expenses to different sources.
