California Gov. Gavin Newsom is heading for the exit and is leaving California’s finances in complete disarray, the state’s own nonpartisan budget watchdog warned.
Included in his new multi-billion dollar budget: $33,000 in taxpayer money to have a new portrait painted.
Gavin Newsom's last state budget includes $33K portrait of himself https://t.co/giayxwu7gz pic.twitter.com/xUjbbUOQ0P
— New York Post (@nypost) May 26, 2026
Newsom unveiled his eighth and final budget revision May 14. He claimed to have fully eliminated California’s deficit through July 2028 and insisted California’s next governor will inherit a stable fiscal foundation.
“I’m not trying to get out of Dodge,” Newsom said. He declared the budget “balanced structurally for the next 18 months after I’m gone” — a formulation that notably limits the timeframe of his claims to just after he leaves office.
But a nonpartisan budget analyst, Gabe Petek, released his own assessment that contained a debt crisis reality check for California.
Newsom achieved the short-term balance by stealing from the state’s emergency reserves while doing nothing to fix California’s growing deficit.
According to Petek’s analysis, the state’s own numbers show massive debt in the state that’s set to explode by $10 billion annually between 2026-27 through 2029-30. To actually close the massive deficit gap, Petek says California would need to find $24 billion in either spending cuts or new tax revenue.
The reserves Newsom is raiding to hide the growing deficit tell their own story.
California’s rainy day funds would be slashed from $76 billion in 2022 to $14.4 billion by June 2027. Petek calls it a “wall of debt” amassed during years of out-of-control spending.
The structural deficit under Newsom has now totaled a staggering $125 billion, according to Petek.
The situation is particularly damaging ahead of Newsom’s expected 2028 presidential run. He inherited a $21.4 billion surplus from his predecessor, Jerry Brown.
Now it is Newsom’s successor who will inherit a massive debt mess – he has his eyes set on hanging his new portrait in the White House.