Today we welcome Scott Graves of the California Budget and Policy Center. The CBPC provides independent fiscal and policy analysis of the California budget with the goal of improving the lives of low and middle income Callfornians. Scott begins by discussing how the legislature set up a rainy day fund in anticipation of future recessions and how accessing the fund helped soften the fiscal blow caused by the pandemic. The effects of COVID-19 radiate through the entire conversation as Scott discusses how budgets reflect priorities and values, how California can raise revenue without raising taxes through structure changes, like closing prisons, why moving toward a form of single payer health care is necessary, and what the CBPC like and didn’t like from the August budget. He finishes by discussing by Califorina billionaires getting richer during the pandemic, and the sober analysis that it will take national leadership to help California and the rest of the country recover from covid.