As reported by the San Jose Mercury News:
SACRAMENTO — Repeating calls for fiscal restraint and seeking to lower expectations about how much more the state can afford, Gov. Jerry Brown on Friday released an updated $122.2 billion state budget that’s slightly smaller than the blueprint he pitched in January.
Tax collections outpaced the governor’s conservative estimates and forced him to increase the size of the general fund spending plan each of the last few years. This time, the $454 million revision came as Brown acknowledged that revenue growth had stalled.
The governor blamed the slump on an unexpected dip in the notoriously volatile capital-gains taxes collected by the state on the sale of stocks and bonds and said managing the state budget is “like riding a tiger.”
“The surging tide of revenue has begun to turn,” Brown said. “Quoting Aesop’s fable of the ant and the grasshopper: ‘It is best to prepare for the days of necessity.’ “
Blockbuster deals Brown struck with the …
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