News

As Gavin Newsom enacts his final budget as governor, I have been looking at all eight of his budgets. The first post was about spending on employee compensation and benefits, which is the third largest category of state spending. The second post was about spending on public schools, which is the second largest category of state spending. The third post was about spending on Medi-Cal, which is the largest category of state spending. This post is about what happened to budget reserves under Newsom.

As Gavin Newsom prepares to sign his final budget as governor, I have been looking back at all of his budgets.

Now that the Legislature and Governor have finalized the 2026-27 budget, GFC will be taking some time off until the Legislature reconvenes August 3. Prepare for a very busy legislative and election season filled with dozens of bills, ballot measures and races about which GFC will have actions to recommend.

As Gavin Newsom prepares to enact his final budget as governor, I have been looking back at all of his budgets.

State legislators in the pockets of public safety unions have re-introduced AB 1383, a bill that would boost pension promises without setting aside sufficient funds to meet those promises. That is the same lethal combination that has already led to a 10x increase in annual pension spending since 2000.

Politico reports that California Democrats plan to shelve a research bond measure for the University of California because “there’s only so much bond capacity.” That’s nonsense.

If Gavin Newsom’s 2026-27 budget is enacted as proposed, the state will have spent $370.6 billion on employee salaries and benefits* over his eight years as governor — 63% more, or $143.7 billion above, what Jerry Brown spent over his own eight-year tenure.

A reader asks why, in yesterday’s post about Gavin Newsom’s eight budgets, I characterized supplemental pension contributions as another example of Newsom’s favoritism towards public sector unions.

As Gavin Newsom gets set to enact the eighth and final budget of his tenure as governor, I am beginning a review of all of his spending since he took office in January, 2019. His first seven budgets spent $3.168 trillion, including federal funds. His final budget proposes to spend $539.1 billion, for a total of $3.707 trillion of spending over Newsom’s eight years.

I first tried to recruit Matt Mahan into politics more than a decade ago. He’s an exceptional man with a rare temperament for governing — mild-mannered, pragmatic, and too honorable to make promises he can’t keep. So when he announced his run for governor earlier this year, I jumped at the chance to help. But I faced an immediate problem: how do you introduce an unknown candidate to a state as large and loud as California?