California’s fixation on balanced budgets has compounded the state’s big problems MORE Gavin Newsom meets with Toni Atkins, Anthony Rendon, Holly J. Mitchell and Phil Ting to discuss California budget. Photo by Office of the Governor of California, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Zocalo commentator Joe Mathews has come with a word that describes what he calls the state’s obsessive and unhealthy aversion to red ink: budgetism. Balanced budgets are generally a good thing. Even in this pandemic year, they’ve provided California with a surplus that will come in handy as revenues dip and Covid costs pile up. But Mathews says balanced budgets can also reflect a timidness to address California’s big problems, such as homelessness, a housing shortage and a healthcare system that was unprepared for the coronavirus onslaught. Mathews says politicians should show a willingness to borrow more and take bold steps.