Commentary California’s government is accelerating toward Gov. Gavin Newsom’s early January release of his budget proposal for fiscal year 2022-23, which begins on July 1. Newsom announced in October there would be an “historic budget surplus.” In a November 17 report, “The 2022-23 Budget: California’s Fiscal Outlook,” Legislative Analyst Gabe Petek projected a $31 billion surplus. That would be on top of the $47 billion surplus from the previous year, as Petek calculated in a separate report on Oct. 27, “Overview of the Spending Plan (Final Version).” The state really is rolling in the money, largely because of the immense profits of Silicon Valley and $27 billion from the federal government’s American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act Fiscal Relief Funds. As Petek wrote in his November report, “The 2021-22 budget allocated the entirety of these funds to a variety of purposes, including about $9.2 billion to offset existing General Fund costs.” What …