[DrScump]

  California has a surplus now.

What budget year are you talking about, where an actual surplus was evident when the budget year closed?

Projections are just projections and can be seriously wrong. A projected $2.8 billion surplus[0] quickly changed to being a $1.6 billion deficit[1].

[0] https://www.scpr.org/news/2016/11/17/66216/california-analys...

[1] http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-sac-jerry-brown-budge...

[dmode]

Your links are from Jan 2017. Those were projections. 2017-2018 was $6bn budget surplus on top a $8bn rainy day fund. Here's the WSJ link from Jan 2018

https://www.wsj.com/articles/jerry-browns-legacy-a-6-1-billi...