[abeppu]

Elsewhere in this subthread I pointed out that California is not printing money; it's spending surplus from 2021. California cannot print money bc we use US dollars and not CA dollars.

But I think a more interesting aspect of this is the cynical way language around the same idea has changed. The Franchise Tax Board is calling them a "tax refund", though your "refund" is based on your income being low, rather than your tax bill having been high. But the press has certainly been cooperative in calling them "inflation relief" recently, though the program was planned before inflation rose to the top of so many people's list of concerns. Politically, Newsome wants as much credit as possible for handing back a windfall of taxpayer money that came in mostly because of economic conditions he did not create and taxes that he did not introduce.

https://www.ftb.ca.gov/about-ftb/newsroom/middle-class-tax-r...

[0xy]

In this case they're using debt, because while they may have had a surplus in a single calendar year, they're still over $150bn in debt. So it isn't spending surplus, because they're massively underwater and a "profit" is meaningless.

[KptMarchewa]

They are just not overpaying debt, which makes no sense when the rate of outstanding debt is way below inflation.