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Slack.com slash DHQ. We'll do a little state budget math. We'll talk mortgages in a bit,

and we'll take a swing out the Montana too. From American public media, this is Marketplace.

In Los Angeles, I'm Kai. Rizdole is Wednesday. It's the 11th day of January. It's always

to have you along. Everybody. It has been a while, I think, since we have talked states.

State budgets, state finances, and how the late-stage pandemic economy is treating them. As

it happens, the two most popular states in this nation are in very different fiscal

places right now. California Governor Gavin Newsom is looking to patch a $23 billion

budget deficit down in Texas. Meanwhile, Governor Greg Abbott's thinking up a way to spend

a $33 billion surplus. There'll be no shortage of blue state red state partisan bickering over

the next couple of months, as you can imagine. But as Marketplace is Matt Levin reports now

to get his going, this is more about this economy than it is about politics.

Every state is its own special fiscal snowflake with its own beautifully unique economy

and tax structure. But generally speaking, state budgets are doing well. Richard Augger is

with the tax policy center. But there is a bit of concern about what's on the horizon.

Most state budgets are kind of like your average household budget right now. Income is still

rolling in. There's still some leftover pandemic aid from the feds. But it feels like a downturn

may be coming. It's already hit a very big part of California's tax base, as Chris Haney

...