News

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?

In their bids for governor, Xavier Becerra, Tom Steyer, and Steve Hilton attributed California’s systemic issues to Donald Trump, corporations, and the Democratic party, respectively. That rhetoric might appeal to some voters but not to the facts. Becerra’s claims are undermined by the fact that California has significantly lagged behind other states during the Trump (and, for that matter, Biden) presidencies.

In the June 2 election, my efforts were centered on backing two exceptional individuals for Governor and Insurance Commissioner and opposing SEIU’s Proposition D tax increase in San Francisco.

When voting, take Emily Hoeven’s advice and refuse to limit yourself to “a subset of mediocre candidates simply because of what the polls say.”

Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the monopolist behind the Proposition D tax increase on San Francisco’s ballot, is also a smart venture capitalist. SEIU enterprises have put up $1.86 million, more than half of the money raised in support of the measure.

Following yesterday’s post regarding the SEIU monopoly in San Francisco, a reader inquired about the motivations behind Governor Ronald Reagan signing the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act (MMBA) in 1968, which established collective bargaining rights for local government staff and set the table for SEIU’s ascendance.

In 2022, Lyft used environmentalism to mask a tax grab for its own benefit. Today, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) employs a “tax-the-rich” facade to bankroll its own members.

With only 16 days until the June 2 Primary Election, voters remain remarkably undecided. Whether on San Francisco buses, at art museums, or at dinner parties, almost everyone I ask still doesn’t know who they’ll support. In all my 49 years in California, I’ve never seen a statewide election so wide open.