CALIFORNIA BLOWS TAXPAYER DOLLARS

What Happens When It’s Not Your Money

Gavin Newsom is already campaigning for the Presidency, but if his campaign goes well, we should all be very afraid. The man has is incapable of managing taxpayers’ money in a prudent manner. I’ve always suspected that the infamous French Laundry meal (at a minimum of $1200/person) was funded by us. We had an assumed $98BB surplus, so Newsom began giving away as much as $50,000 to random people to try to get a Covid-19 vaccine. In two years, California had a projected $73BB deficit. While people were shocked at Kamala Harris pissing away over $1BB in four months of her campaign, it almost looks reasonable when you consider Newsom’s profligacy. California has a serious spending problem; it has to be solved or the state is toast.

Assumption Made an Ass Out of Newsom

Flush with the surplus, Governor Newsom assumed that the huge increase in tax revenues for fiscal year 2021-22—approximately $70BB—would continue. Ignoring the “why” of the situation—that people chose to realize capital gains that year—he felt he could spend as if this “trend” would continue. But it wasn’t a trend.

The capital gains rollercoaster is normal in California, driven by stock market gains and falls. But Newsom went further than others had. He assumed that not only would the increase repeat, but that there would be even more revenue the next fiscal year, ignoring the boom/bust cycle of tax revenues. This is the moral equivalent of the old dumb blonde joke— “I must still have money; I have more checks.” But the impact is far greater on a state where taxes, legislation and profligacy have made it impossible for many people to keep living here.

The FY2025-26 Budget

Newsom recognized the need for some cuts. He is calling a halt to free Medi-Cal for illegals. But he still thinks he’s on track toward long-term fiscal stability, which he isn’t. What he’s done for the most part involves gimmicks and funding shifts, which isn’t spending cuts, where cuts are absolutely needed.

Wayne Winegarden, PRI, sees a crisis coming. California simply spends too much on really poor government service. Long-term caving to government union demands have left government workers with cushy benefits the private sector has never seen, along with paychecks that typically go up from six figures. Government unions clearly have to go, along with unaffordable government mandates, such as ridiculous minimum wage requirements. Another stupid move, which hurts workers and companies, was Proposition 5 which made it almost completely illegal to work as a contractor. Exceptions were made for rideshare and a few other carve-outs. When you force companies to hire employees, they hire less of them. Contractors allow employers to flex during peak and slow times.

The Cost of Bad Government

The 2024-25 budget costs 8.1% of personal income, which is ridiculous, but it is still going up despite the so-called cuts Newsom is willing to make. Newsom also claims he is DOGEing California through the Office of Data and Innovation, but even his own people show unwillingness to do anything concrete about the costs.

“Gov. Newsom believes there are a lot more societal problems that government should be in the middle of,” Keely Bosler, who served as finance director during his first term, told CalMatters.

Marybel Batjer, who was Newsom’s first government operations secretary and launched the Office of Data and Innovation, said Newsom has expanded state government not because he is an “old dog Democrat who thinks government is good,” but because he wants to help people. She said D.O.G.E. should aim to make government more effective, rather than simply cutting it back.

“You won’t save money that way. You will have more people who are homeless. You will have more people who are sicker. You will have more pandemics,” Batjer said.

Wonder why people are leaving? Our spending is 39.4% larger than other states. (2021 data, which is the newest available). To come more in line with other state spending, we would need to see a 14% reduction in spending relative to income or a 28% reduction based on per capita valuation. If we had great state services and people felt really privileged to live here based on government efforts, it might make sense. But our services are poorer, our roads in bad shape, educational outcomes are horrible, we have more homeless and illegals, despite substantial spending on both groups, there is constant demand for more spending, and yet, after billions, we have a bridge instead of high-speed rail, and no additional water containment. Our fiscal state and tax competitiveness put us at position 50, compared to other states.

“Compassionism vs Common Sense”

Housing First requires nothing from the homeless to achieve a standard of living that many working poor envy. Newsom welcomes illegals who don’t have to work, as the state is covering their needs. He wants to socialize medicine, when we can’t afford all the free health care we give out now.

Like most Democrats, when he wants to raise taxes, services we all need are at the top of the list for elimination, instead of the waste, fraud and senseless spending that would really lower our budget costs. This is the stick they like to hold over us, instead of taking a chain saw to the budget and eliminating a ton of positions.

Our government keeps growing; Newsom even significantly increased his staff despite the problems. As most socialists prefer, he considers government jobs as good as private sector (or perhaps better), even as only the private sector builds wealth; the public sector just costs money.

Where we could use smart spending is on nuclear power, actual fire management, water storage and non-governmental education, we get the opposite. We get “green energy” which kills birds and other life forms and is actually less green than they claim, growth in non-performing government schools and many new agencies that do nothing. It’s always on the taxpayer to pony up more money rather than the state to live in a much smaller budget.

“No Kings!” cry the idiot protestors? What’s more kingly than Newsom writing checks on an empty account.