News

Yesterday the Los Angeles Times published an article entitled Newsom called it a ‘gimmick.’ Now he’s using the trick to lower California’s massive deficit in which the Governor’s spokesperson defends the proposed budget and challenges readers to come up with their own solutions to the deficit. I have five such solutions to propose, all of which pertain to reeling in extraordinary patronage spending on public employees:

SACRAMENTO — With a windfall of cash five years ago, Gov. Gavin Newsom said he was doing away with a state budget “gimmick” one of his predecessors relied on to shave about $800 million off a deficit during the Great Recession.

Yesterday Governor Newsom, Senate President pro Tempore McGuire and Assembly Speaker Rivas confirmed they still intend to close the budget deficit in part by drawing half of the state’s budget reserves when they finalize the budget in June.

I’ve been trying to understand why Governor Newsom has proposed such a reckless budget. The only answer I can come up with is that he hopes to escape California before the consequences of that budget are suffered by being appointed to President Biden’s Cabinet should Mr. Biden be re-elected in November.

Despite a healthy national economy, California has a budget deficit that Governor Newsom proposes to close in the main by drawing on budget reserves, borrowing money, shifting funds, and deferring spending — ie, steps normally taken only during recessions.

As recent election results demonstrate, San Francisco has become ground zero for the effective political philanthropy movement. Next up is the November General Election, which will offer an all-important opportunity to elect a majority of pragmatists to the Board of Supervisors, protect a public-safety-oriented District Attorney, and enact important changes to the city’s charter.

Governor Newsom postponed the annual State of the State address scheduled for today, apparently (according to Politico) until the final results of Proposition 1 are known.

State taxpayers got more bad news this week when the State Senate released its proposed early action plan for addressing California’s budget shortfall in which we can find nothing of substance that differs from Governor Newsom’s plan.

Why have corporations, unions and associations put up more than $10 million that Gov. Gavin Newsom is using for state and national advertisements featuring him? The answer is that Newsom has delivered billions of state dollars to them.

While there wasn’t much on the statewide ballot yesterday, there was plenty on the San Francisco ballot and the results look to be a resounding endorsement of that city’s vibrant ecosystem of political philanthropies.