California’s state and local government debt is roughly $1.6 trillion, which includes a proper accounting of the state’s unfunded liabilities. To put this in perspective, this works out to about $125,000 of debt per California household and exceeds the annual GDP of all but 13 countries.

California is in no position to increase its debt, and not just because of its past overborrowing. California is losing businesses and taxpayers to other states, and at rates that have accelerated since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. To put California’s losses in perspective, since February 2020—the last month before COVID-related shutdowns took hold—California lost roughly 366,000 jobs, while the US gained about 5.4 million jobs in the same period. Because of the loss of population and businesses and because of irresponsible budgeting, California now faces a $58 billion state budget deficit in the 2024–25 fiscal year, and deficits of about $30 billion after that.

Despite this reality, Gavin Newsom wants California voters to pass Proposition 1, a $6.38 billion dollar bond issue to build additional drug treatment facilities and permanent housing for the homeless and those with addiction and mental health issues. It is about time that California politicians realize addiction is a huge part of homelessness, which is a view that has been flat-out denied within progressive policymaking circles for years. But I see no reason to expect that passing Proposition 1 will be anything more than doubling down on California’s previous failures to sensibly deal with........

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