California legislators want to pile on the debt

When legislators passed and Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a 2020-21 state budget in June, they described it as “balanced.”
Not by a long shot.
As detailed in this space earlier, it included at least $20 billion in direct and indirect, on-the-books and off-the-books borrowing that must, of course, eventually be repaid. More than half of the new debt is in “deferrals” of state aid to local school systems that, by constitutional law, must be restored in future years.
Having