California can’t afford free health care for undocumented immigrants

California’s multibillion-dollar budget deficit could soon grow worse.
State tax revenue dropped over 14% in the recession that followed the dot-com bubble, nearly 14% during the Great Financial Crisis from 2008 to 2009, and almost 8% during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now, with financial markets reeling thanks to the Trump administration’s tariff drama, Sacramento could see its tax take plummet by billions of dollars, as it has in the past.
Yet instead of charting a saf