Few outside of Sacramento realize that some of the most important state budget decisions happen just before Christmas, in private meetings where the governor signs off on the spending plan he will present to the Legislature in early January. Critics may still believe the state spends too much, but budget negotiations now routinely involve a look at what’s over the horizon. The emergence of a more flexible, gradual approach to state government spending has helped lower the political temperature in Sacramento. And he said the state could afford to spend more on California’s middle-class scholarship program. But the 2018 budget debate in the state Capitol could very well line up with one of life’s greatest lessons: Timing is everything.

Source: Los Angeles Times December 17, 2017 08:03 UTC