California has a surplus now.
What budget year are you talking about, where an actual surplus was evident when the budget year closed?Projections are just projections and can be seriously wrong. A projected $2.8 billion surplus[0] quickly changed to being a $1.6 billion deficit[1].
[0] https://www.scpr.org/news/2016/11/17/66216/california-analys...
[1] http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-sac-jerry-brown-budge...