This time of year is always interesting in Sacramento. The California State Department of Finance (DOF) is about to release its “May Revise” of the State Budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year. In the budget process, the May Revise is the last piece of information necessary for legislative approval of the budget. The DOF issues its report, usually around May 10, then the Legislative Analyst Office (LAO) issues its analysis of the May Revise, then the Legislature enters the final lap of approving the budget.
Up to this point, the DOF issued its January budget, and the LAO analyzed that document, and the Budget Committees in both houses of the Legislature have broken out into their subcommittees, and each subcommittee has studied the line items in their policy area of the budget, and approved or disapproved the “budget change proposals” (BCPs) from the various departments of the state government. The BCP is the request from the various departments for money in the next year’s budget. It is important to note that the budget subcommittees do not review the entire budget from the departments, only the BCPs. If the subcommittees in the two houses approve a department’s BCP on a line item, that is it. That budget line item gets no further review. Only the line items where there is a difference between the Assembly and Senate action on the line item go before the Budget Conference Committee. Everything else is passed according to the Department’s request.
Why is this important? Mainly because no one actually analyzes whether the Department whose BCPs are being reviewed by the Legislative Committees are accomplishing anything or helping anyone. The Department gets everything it got the year before, and if the Legislature reduces the BCP request, the Department claims they have been cut. Put in clearer terms, assume the Department got $10,000 on a line item last year, and this year, asks, through its BCP, for $5,000 more, a total of $15,000. If the Legislature reduces that BCP by $3,000 (giving the Department a $2000 increase over the year before), the Department will claim it has been cut by 60%. I don’t know about you, but getting $10,000 one year and then $12,000 that next is an increase in any language except budgetese. In budgetese, it is a 60% cut.
What we will then hear from the Legislature is the state government now needs more revenue to “avoid” these “cuts.” First, revenue is collected from taxes that you and I pay to the government. AND we get taxed on everything, housing, gasoline, income, a lot of different foods and drinks, water, utilities, telephone service, and so on and so on and so on. Of course, you and I didn’t get a raise, so the government really cuts our revenue for their expanded role in our lives. The Legislature doesn’t care that they are taking the money from us, and our rent or house payment, or food on our table, or whatever they are taking it from, all they care about is that they need “revenue” for their priorities. They “NEED” free health care and education for illegals, they “NEED” big raises for government employees who are staying at home and watching television and still getting a paycheck, they “NEED” to feed an education system that is failing the children of this state because teachers and administrators are bleeding the system, hiding behind the children to line their own pockets. The list goes on, but to understand what is really going on is that you need to understand the language they are speaking. They emit noises that sound like English, but don’t have English meanings.
When an increase in the budget is described as a cut, you are being lied to. When an increase in taxes is described as a much needed increase in revenue, you are being lied to. When the line items in the state budget are said to being spending money for important government functions, and then you find out it is for illegal aliens or nonproductive government employees or programs to line the pockets of politically influential actors, like government union bosses or politically connected interest groups, you know you are being lied to.
They speak a different language to hide what is really going on in state government. You think you know what they mean, because they use English words, but it really isn’t the English language. It is a form of language that should be know as Budgetese or Governmentese. Special English words to hide from even the most informed voter of what is really happening in Sacramento (and in Washington).
Just watch for it. It will come up in the next few days, then over the next several weeks, those who are in charge of the budget, and wasted your money over the last 5 years, will demand you pay them more. There will be much wailing and gnashing of teeth, very similar to that which we are hearing from Washington right now, but don’t be fooled. If they don’t really cut government, they don’t deserve more of your money.