Here are 1.9 billion reasons why California shouldn't decide the presidential election

Whoops. It appears that California underestimated the state’s Medicaid costs to the tune of $1.9 billion:

California underestimated their Medicaid costs by *$1.9 BILLION* this year. Major accounting error.https://t.co/5Zx8fyISNP

— Brian Faughnan (@BrianFaughnan) January 19, 2017

The error was discovered last fall, but just now made public as Governor Brown unveiled his latest budget proposal. From the AP:

Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration miscalculated costs for the state Medi-Cal program by $1.9 billion last year, an oversight that contributed to Brown’s projection of a deficit in the upcoming budget, officials acknowledged this week.

The administration discovered accounting mistakes last fall, but it did not notify lawmakers until the administration included adjustments to make up for the errors in Brown’s budget proposal last week. The Democratic governor called for more than $3 billion in cuts because of a projected deficit he pegged at $1.6 billion.

A spokesman for the Dept. of Finance declared it a “straight up error in accounting,” which is hard to believe:

Uhhhhhh someone needs to check the Excel formulas….. https://t.co/bD64xlepez

— Bryan Jones (@bpjauburn) January 19, 2017

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a billion here, billion there, pretty soon you're talking real money https://t.co/dzTp0ocPAj

— tim nutt (@twnutt) January 19, 2017

And we assume this puts those California secession plans on hold for a little bit?

https://twitter.com/Heminator/status/822092744508264451

Of note, Gov. Brown didn’t bring up the error when briefing reporters on the deficit last week:

Gov. Jerry Brown Says California Faces First Budget Deficit Since 2012 https://t.co/DWTp2SUmoW @MelodyGutierrez @ReasonReform @RSInow

— Jack Dean (@PensionTsunami) January 11, 2017

What else is he hiding from the press?

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