As the state’s economy emerged from a brief but severe recession during COVID-19 and federal relief funds were pumped into the state, revenues spiked to more than $200 billion. Based on that one-time event, in 2022, Newsom’s administration projected that revenues from the state’s three major sources — sales taxes and personal and corporate income taxes — would continue to generate more than $210 billion a year.

Newsom declared that the state enjoyed a $97.5 billion budget surplus and boasted, “No other state in American history has ever experienced a surplus as large as this.”