California deficit hits record $68 billion

California's budget deficit has hit $68 billion, the Legislative Analyst’s Office announced on Thursday.

The figure is substantially higher than the June estimate of $14.3 billion, Politico reported, and comes amid a drop in tax revenues across the Golden State. It is not all bad news for Sacramento, however, as the state is not without resources to address the matter, namely a significant cash reserve.

"The state remains in a good cash position, and that really wasn’t the case back at the start of the Great Recession. We don’t face the same kind of liquidity challenges that we had at that time, and so I would stop short of describing it as a crisis," LAO Analyst Gabriel Petek told the outlet.

The numbers are something of a black eye to Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who last week touted the successes of the Golden State during a televised debate with Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Newsom, the outlet noted, will likely have to make significant spending cuts to account for the unexpected shortfall.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter.