With inflation at a 40-year high, another round of stimulus checks might be the last thing economists would recommend right now. But that’s not stopping Governor Gavin Newsom from sending out checks of up to $1,050 to 23 million Californians. Newsom and legislative leaders are casting the inflationary stimulus checks as “inflation relief”:
About 23 million California residents will soon receive “inflation relief” checks of up to $1,050 under a budget deal reached by Governor Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers on Sunday.
The checks are part of a $17 billion relief package that will also suspend the state’s sales tax on diesel fuel and provide additional aid to help people with rent and utility bills, Newsom and Senate President Pro Tempore Toni G. Atkins and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon said in a statement.
The new round of checks was made possible by the $1.9 trillion “Covid relief” bill passed by Congress on a party-line vote in March 2021. That legislation sent $180 billion to California, including $42 billion in direct aid to the state and local governments in California. Last month, Newsom announced the state was running a $97.5 billion surplus.
The $1.9 trillion March 2021 "American Rescue Plan" spent about $180 billion total on government/schools/residents of California: pic.twitter.com/pZXYaCfQyP
— John McCormack (@McCormackJohn) May 13, 2022