Category: Gavin Newsom

Newsom’s Revised Budget Maintains 5 Percent Funding Raises for UC, CSU Systems to Boost Graduation Rate, Enrollment

Gov. Gavin Newsom is maintaining his pledge to give another year of funding increases to California’s two university systems amid a projected $32 billion state budget shortfall. In a revised 2023–24 state budget—presented on May 12—Newsom kept intact his plan to give both the University of California (UC) and California State University (CSU) systems a…


Newsom’s Revised Budget Doesn’t Cut Enough

Commentary As expected, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s revision of his January budget proposal, announced at 10 am May 12, projects a major deficit of $31.5 billion for fiscal year 2023-24, which begins on July 1. That’s $10 billion more than his January projection of a $22.5 billion deficit. The May Revise, as it’s called in Sacramento…


California Deficit Expands to $31.5 Billion, Newsom Proposes Broad Spending Cuts in Revised Budget

California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced proposed revisions to the state’s 2023–24 fiscal budget on May 12 during a press conference at the state Capitol, with an additional $9 billion deficit added to prior estimates. Uncertainty was a key talking point during the governor’s remarks, with inflation, rising interest rates, financial market jitters, and delayed tax…


Gov. Newsom Awards $100 Million to Replace 107-Year-Old San Diego Bridge

The San Diego North County Transit District received $100 million in state funds on April 24 to replace a railway bridge in Del Mar, which officials say will result in faster and more frequent train services. The replacement of the 107-year-old wooden San Dieguito bridge will also include the construction of double tracks and a…


Newsom Tongue-Tied Over His Reparations Task Force’s $800 Billion Proposal

Commentary It is here! From the time Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law implementing a task force on reparations in 2020, it was inevitable that this day would come. The task force has proposed that the state pay an estimated $800 billion to the state’s black residents. Newsom has had a long time to plan…


California Defaults on $18.6 Billion Debt, Now Businesses Have to Pay

California borrowed approximately $20 billion from the federal government to cover unemployment benefits during the pandemic, and with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recent decision to not pay it back, employers are now saddled with the expense, according to experts. “The state should have taken care of the loans with the COVID money it received from the…


California, New York, Illinois Biggest Losers Amid Exodus to Low-Tax States: IRS

The latest tax migration data from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) shows that the exodus of taxpayers from high-tax states continued from 2020 to 2021, with California, New York, and Illinois again suffering some of the nation’s biggest losses of people and money. California’s tax base shrank by nearly $29.1 billion as the Golden State…


Gov. Newsom’s Successor, Part 2: President or Vice President Newsom?

Commentary (Part One of this two-part series is “The Early Candidates Announce.”) On April 25, President Joe Biden launched his 2024 reelection bid. To me, at least, even in the heavily rehearsed and edited announcement video, he looked frail and partly incoherent. Americans seem to agree. An NBC News poll released the day before showed…


Gov. Newsom’s Successor Part 1: The Early Candidates Announce

Commentary My, they’re starting early in the bid to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom when term-limits force him out in 2026. Unless he becomes president or vice president before then—which actually could happen. I’m crafting Part Two of this two-part series on that possibility. Even though President Joe Biden on April 25 announced his re-election bid and…


California Bill Considering Release for Murderers Sentenced to Death Advances

California legislators will continue to consider a bill that allows for the potential release of former death-row inmates convicted of murder, after it passed its first hurdle in the Senate Public Safety Committee April 11 on a 4–1 vote. Authored by state Senator Dave Cortese (D-San Jose), and co-authored by a list of Democratic senators,…