California’s budget whiplash explained: From a record-setting surplus to a massive shortfall in one year

This time last year, there was excitement and possibility over how to spend a record $97.5 billion budget surplus, a shocking figure coming at the end of a bruising COVID-19 pandemic. But this year, excitement has turned into a fight over what not to cut as the state stares down a $31.5 billion budget gap.

How did this budget whiplash happen? To understand how the state could, in one year, have a revenue swing of about $128.5 billion requires a look at how the state raises money for the general fund — the big pot of money that funds most state programs — and a few other complicated aspects of how California juggles competing budget requirements.