Governor Newsom is poised to release his plan to deal with California’s record budget deficit. The governor will announce his initial budget blueprint tomorrow morning in Sacramento. And the number one question will be just how big is that deficit?

The legislative analyst’s office pegged it at $68 billion dollars just last month, which would indeed be a record. And you are forgiven if you feel some budget whiplash, considering that less than two years ago we were talking about a record budget surplus of almost one hundred billion dollars.

But the pandemic and slumping economy in 2022 and first part of 2023 took their toll, and now California faces a huge shortfall instead. The governor and his team insist it’s not as bad as the LAO makes it out to be, and the actual deficit will be significantly  less than 68 billion, but we will find out tomorrow morning at 10:30 what the governor projects it to be.

For more on this, KCBS Radio's political reporter Doug Sovern spoke with KCBS anchors Bret Burkhart and Patti Reising.