Ep. 258: Breaking Down Newsom's Proposed Budget

[00:00:00] If you're a California conservative, a libertarian, a moderate Democrat, believe in common sense,

[00:00:11] or just a sane person, this is the political podcast for you. It's the California Underground

[00:00:17] Podcast.

[00:00:18] What's going on everybody? Thanks for tuning into another episode of the California Underground

[00:00:31] Podcast. I'm trying to different emphasis on different words see if that kind of I

[00:00:35] don't know how to try and see how that sounds maybe that's a little different spice

[00:00:38] it up a little bit. I'm your host Phil, as always with my trusty co-host, the best and fastest researcher in the West. Camille, how are you?

[00:00:45] I'm okay. I'm recovering from a little cold. I'm slow. I sound awful. I apologize in advance for that.

[00:00:54] I'm here.

[00:00:56] We're back safe from San Francisco, our trip up to the California GOP Convention. Before we get started, I really had a good time. I think everything went really well.

[00:01:07] We had so much fun. By the end of it, it was three hours and 15 minutes. I mean, that's including like the breaks we took. But still, that's a pretty long podcast.

[00:01:16] It's like a Joe Rogan podcast.

[00:01:19] We have some subjects in case of walls. And so we started off right away with like, okay, this is what we're going to dive into before a candidate comes.

[00:01:26] And I think you read the headline and then a candidate showed up and then it just

[00:01:32] We like this is our second one doing it. And I had prepped because I was like, well, what if no one comes by our table? What if no one wants to talk to us?

[00:01:44] That was not the case. We definitely got enough people want to thank Ronald, Mike, Joshua and Paul and Jim. Jim Shoemaker.

[00:01:54] That's five candidates we had who came by all running for local seats. Assembly, Jim is running for state Senate.

[00:02:01] So it was great sitting down talking to them. And yeah, well, if you didn't listen to the podcast, we did talk a lot about how I felt like a lot of these candidates who were running genuinely were passionate about why they're running for their seat.

[00:02:19] And you and I discussed on that podcast how each person had something different because California is just so big.

[00:02:25] Like the difference between like Mike Greer and like Joshua Rivera was like, Mike Greer was worried about protecting the environment and like the fishing industry and stuff like that up there in Humboldt County.

[00:02:36] And then you had Joshua Rivera, who was down in like LA area. He's worried more about crime and public safety and stuff like that.

[00:02:43] But you could tell like each of them is genuinely they're running because they generally want to help.

[00:02:48] And they don't get it. Sadly, the Republican Party just doesn't give them any attention. They just you know, it's all about who's running for Congress or something like that because that's how they keep score in today's politics is how many congressmen do we get elected?

[00:03:02] Not have we flipped the state legislature?

[00:03:06] So it was a lot of fun. It was great to give those guys a platform to speak and to get their name and everything out there.

[00:03:15] I do appreciate I am wearing the shirt again, because it was just, it was so good.

[00:03:20] So I had to cut out for a moment there. So I'm not sure what you said.

[00:03:23] Sorry, could you repeat that?

[00:03:25] I said I'm wearing my shirt again from the podcast local elections matter. You had yours on the day before.

[00:03:34] I enjoyed the kind of second look that you got like people kind of like took a look like wait a second. Is that a BLM shirt at a California GOP convention?

[00:03:45] And then people were kind of like, Ah, I see what you did there. So any thoughts on convention before we hop into budget talks?

[00:03:55] You know, I feel like we covered that on the convention episode a bunch and recap to here just now.

[00:04:01] So I have thoughts on the budget. Okay, okay. So at convention, we briefly briefly touched on this in person, not online.

[00:04:11] But we've also kind of touched on it offline in other conversations.

[00:04:17] We yes, you and I are Republicans. We say that. Am I allowed to say that about you? We say that. We're not ashamed to say we're Republicans.

[00:04:24] We don't hate Democrats. We don't hate Democrats or we don't hate a policy just because a Democrat wrote it, etc.

[00:04:33] We are all about good policy and we want to break down policies. Unfortunately, there is a lot of bad policies.

[00:04:40] And so I don't want people to think we're going into this tonight going, Oh, this is all terrible because it's Newsom and because Newsom is a Democrat, we're just going to hate on him.

[00:04:48] It's not like that. But as I texted you, this could probably be summed up as Newsom's just an arrogant a-hole.

[00:04:55] And you guys will see that and hear that as we dive into. Perhaps this is very naive of me.

[00:05:01] And I went to early on, I was either homeschooled or went to private Christian schools and I was raised to believe no taxation without representation.

[00:05:12] And I'm still shocked to this day when people question taxes and those in authority push back.

[00:05:20] Like how dare you question us? And we get a lot of that from Newsom.

[00:05:24] And these reporters that are asking him questions, a lot of them are actually on his side.

[00:05:29] They're usually, you know, team Gavin and team Newsom, excuse me.

[00:05:34] And he's acting so offended and so arrogant over how dare you question me, how I've already explained this.

[00:05:41] And their job is to go up and report and break this down so that people that are reading their columns understand what's going on.

[00:05:48] Not everyone's paying attention to this two and a half hour budget breakdown.

[00:05:53] They're going to go and like give a bite sized pieces for their people to be like, here's what's going on in the budget.

[00:05:58] And they're asking for clarification on specific things. And Newsom's acting like, why would you question me?

[00:06:06] I've explained this or I'm not going to go into that or just and people will people will see that.

[00:06:12] But it just shocks me that there's that kind of attitude there.

[00:06:16] Yeah, he does kind of come off as this arrogant like how dare you question me about a lot of this stuff.

[00:06:22] And like you've clearly got your facts wrong. Like I've got all the correct facts. You don't have the correct facts.

[00:06:31] So it's we were going to kind of do a video or a podcast about him presenting the budget.

[00:06:39] I'm not going to lie, I got like five or ten minutes into it and I was like, oh my gosh, this is so boring.

[00:06:44] Like I wouldn't want to subject our listeners to this.

[00:06:47] But then I skipped ahead to like the press questions and I was like, OK, this is more interesting because he gets a little more testy.

[00:06:54] He pushes back on a lot of things.

[00:06:57] So when you sent me the video and I was like two and a half hours, you're fired.

[00:07:03] No, but then the notes you were like starting at 50 minutes or something. I was like, OK, thank God I can.

[00:07:08] Yeah, I I was like getting through it. I was like, I don't want to sit here and like go over budget stuff that he's you know, like this this math and gimmicky stuff that he's doing.

[00:07:19] So instead, what we're going to do is I'm going to go over there. Some articles that broke it down really well.

[00:07:25] So we'll just kind of go over like the highlights and then we'll jump into the video of him and we're going to hit a couple of questions.

[00:07:33] We're going to hit every single question. There was like a whole there's like an hour worth of questions, but we're going to hit some of the highlights, talk about them.

[00:07:41] And yeah, so for those who don't know, if you've just woken up today, California is broke.

[00:07:50] We don't have any money. Seventy three billion dollars. I mean, that's the estimate. It's like between 50 and 73 billion.

[00:07:57] The legislative analyst office says it's closer to 73 billion. Newsom's office says it's closer to 50 billion.

[00:08:05] But either way, that's a lot of money that were in the red.

[00:08:10] So in this article, it talks us from CalMatters.

[00:08:14] Faced with ongoing weaknesses in state finances, Governor Gavin Newsom put forward a revised budget plan today that he said aims to stabilize California in the longer term by addressing a sizable deficit.

[00:08:26] Estimated 56 billion over the next two fiscal cycles.

[00:08:30] Looking beyond the typical annual budget cycle, Newsom proposed more than 30 billion dollars in ongoing and one time spending cuts, including to education climate objectives that have been among the governor's own priorities, though he promised that core programs providing social services to need Californians would mostly be untouched.

[00:08:49] The governor's proposal is an opening offer to legislature, which has until June 15th to pass a balanced budget.

[00:08:55] Again, just for those who don't know, states can't go into debt.

[00:09:00] They have to balance the budget. So they're not like the federal government that can take on 31 trillion dollars in debt.

[00:09:05] States have to balance their budget.

[00:09:09] So that leaves a little more than a month for members to sort through Newsom solutions and negotiate a compromise that reflects their own concerns amid what is certain to be a fever pitch of lobbying from outside groups hoping to stave off cuts to their preferred programs.

[00:09:23] All right, some numbers to know.

[00:09:27] Negative 7.3 percent with tax revenues coming in below expectations about seven billion lower than even the governor's January projections.

[00:09:37] This revised budget proposal is substantially smaller than the 310 billion dollars spending plan for the current fiscal year.

[00:09:44] 27.6 billion is another number that prompted Newsom legislature to take early action last month to reduce the deficit by more than 17 billion ahead of the regular budget process.

[00:09:54] Why does California have such a financial problem?

[00:09:59] This is due to because California in a nutshell, California makes most of its money on wealthy people and capital gains taxes.

[00:10:06] The problem is when the stock market does well, California does well.

[00:10:11] When the stock market doesn't do well and rich people leave, California doesn't do as well.

[00:10:16] There's some other numbers. Let's see.

[00:10:21] But while I'm finding that zero Newsom said that there are no new taxes.

[00:10:28] I've been one of those. I've not been one of those promoting taxes, the governor said.

[00:10:33] I'm not prepared to increase taxes.

[00:10:36] Quote, should we reform the tax system? The answer is yes.

[00:10:39] Newsom said how we do that is more difficult and challenging conversation.

[00:10:44] Is there anything else? No, that's about it.

[00:10:47] So that's the highlight of like Newsom's budget proposal.

[00:10:52] Anything stand out to you right away?

[00:10:57] Well, just the fact that we have any debt at all.

[00:11:01] If we start reaching a million, two million, a few million in debt, we should immediately be like, OK, we have to rein this back in instead.

[00:11:09] We're billions, billions.

[00:11:12] And like that right there is a problem.

[00:11:16] And I feel like I keep mentioning this ever since we did the transparent California episode.

[00:11:21] When you start going through how many people, California employees and what they're being paid, it's kind of like, OK, well, you know, this budget is covering all these.

[00:11:32] Like there's homelessness and affordable housing and schools, education, all that.

[00:11:37] But I feel like we could really start letting some people go in the government and really reining in on some of the things that we need to do.

[00:11:44] So I feel like we could really start letting some people go in the government and really reining in on salaries and pensions.

[00:11:50] And I think that we could save a ton of money right there.

[00:11:55] So this was the number I was looking for.

[00:11:59] He said he's pushing to eliminate 10,000 vacant state government positions, which could save seven hundred and sixty three million dollars annually.

[00:12:12] Why did it take so long to realize there are 10,000 vacant state government positions that's costing us almost one billion dollars a year?

[00:12:21] Why? Why now? All of a sudden. Right. Right.

[00:12:25] Do you think any of those although OK, in my question I have a partial answer.

[00:12:32] But do you think any of that was because of covid additional staffing?

[00:12:39] But I believe from what I looked up on transparent California, there was only like 360 additional covid jobs.

[00:12:46] But that could be way wrong because I don't fully understand it.

[00:12:49] But do you think a lot of these positions were added because of covid?

[00:12:52] Ten thousand.

[00:12:55] Ten thousand. I don't think they had a ten thousand during covid.

[00:12:59] They probably had several hundred, but ten thousand.

[00:13:03] I don't even think a thousand jobs.

[00:13:06] Like when was it five thousand vacancies? When did it hit ten thousand?

[00:13:09] I want to know how long this has been going on because even a thousand again, like like a million is a lot to be in debt.

[00:13:16] When did we come up with a thousand vacancies?

[00:13:19] And now, of course, we're not just paying nobody that money. That's just it's in the budget.

[00:13:23] You know, they propose the budget with those those plans, those staffing positions in place.

[00:13:29] Of course, it's not like we're just giving money to nobody.

[00:13:32] But yeah, at what point did they realize, hey, we have a thousand vacancies, two thousand vacancies and so on and so forth.

[00:13:39] How many years? Yeah, it's that number jumped out of me.

[00:13:44] I was like, wow, ten thousand jobs that save us almost a billion dollars a year.

[00:13:49] And again, that's not like they're vacant.

[00:13:52] No one's working them, but they were put aside in the budget like we were planning on hiring these people.

[00:13:58] But there's no one there. Well, I think maybe you should slash more people in the government.

[00:14:04] Say you probably save more money.

[00:14:08] Speaking of government employees who are not happy with Governor Newsom's budget, Politico is reporting that teachers who helped elect Gavin Newsom now they're angry about his budget cuts.

[00:14:20] The California Teachers Association, probably one of the most powerful unions in California on Tuesday,

[00:14:26] released a spot that features Newsom himself in 2021 promising not to let education system backslide.

[00:14:32] The ad is set to begin running on TV in Sacramento later this week.

[00:14:36] Quote, tell lawmakers and Governor Newsom.

[00:14:39] This is from the ad to pass a state budget that protects public schools for our students and communities.

[00:14:45] And then after ticking through a bleak picture of crowded classrooms, teacher layoffs and cutbacks on nurses and counselors.

[00:14:51] So yeah, so the teachers, the tide is kind of turning here.

[00:14:59] Yeah, well, teachers, CTA, if you don't know, is one of the most powerful unions in California.

[00:15:07] I would argue the reason schools did not open as fast in California during COVID, as opposed to any other state is 100% due to the CTA.

[00:15:17] They were the ones who are making absolutely ridiculous demands.

[00:15:21] They wanted pay increase. They wanted hazard increase.

[00:15:24] They wanted the state to come in and retrofit every single public school with like new filtration systems.

[00:15:32] Like they want to tear out all of the like air conditioning, put in filtration systems.

[00:15:37] Like it was an insane amount of stuff that they were they were demanding.

[00:15:43] So for anyone who's wondering why schools took so long to reopen, you can blame the CTA.

[00:15:48] And of course, they're saying it's because they want to protect students.

[00:15:52] I think they were just holding the state ransom to get their demands and get more money on that, which is important.

[00:16:00] Right. You know, we keep talking about that.

[00:16:03] Well, since prior to COVID, but really since COVID, school California schools are like at the bottom in the country.

[00:16:10] They're just failing. And I'm now hearing we're at the end of the school year and I'm hearing from so many parents, so many that their kids are coming home and saying that was the easiest state testing that they've ever had in their life.

[00:16:23] Their finals were so ridiculously easy. And so don't be surprised when the test scores come out and everyone's like they passed with flying colors and they're doing so good because they dumbed it down so much to try and present a you know, we're doing so good.

[00:16:39] I would love to see a California state test compared to other states just to see the reality.

[00:16:48] I mean, if you can't teach them, just skew the test.

[00:16:54] Yeah.

[00:16:55] Because what are they like 30? What do we we were talking about this at Convention 37th or something? I forget it.

[00:17:01] I think we're in the 40s.

[00:17:03] We're way down there. We're like almost dead last in education.

[00:17:07] So go California when it comes to public schools.

[00:17:13] This other thing that Newsom said regarding he's not going to raise any taxes.

[00:17:21] He says there's not going to be any tax increases for businesses.

[00:17:27] When it's Gavin Newsom, do you believe that he's honestly saying there's not going to be any new taxes for businesses?

[00:17:34] Or do you think he's being sly about it?

[00:17:38] Sly.

[00:17:39] Die freeze up.

[00:17:43] Do you want me to explain? I just just sly.

[00:17:45] I just think he's being sly.

[00:17:46] You're just being sly. Yeah, I would agree with you because this is what he said during the thing is when considering the 8.84% corporate tax, which is the highest arguably depending on how you analyze it in the country.

[00:18:01] No, I'm not prepared to increase taxes. Newsom replied we have among the highest tax rates in the United States.

[00:18:08] Yeah, in the United States of America for high wage earners.

[00:18:12] We have the among the highest tax rates as I noted for corporate taxes.

[00:18:15] I feel strongly that we have to live within our means.

[00:18:19] Well, at least he's admitting that we have the highest taxes.

[00:18:22] That will be a great sound bite if he ever runs for president.

[00:18:25] I think that you know they're just going to run that like on air all the time like Gavin Newsom admitting we have the highest taxes.

[00:18:31] However, the fine print of Newsom's budget contains several indirect tax increases on business mostly by reducing offsets of taxable income that over the next few years would raise as much as $18 billion.

[00:18:43] So what it basically would do it eliminate the ability of corporations with annual revenues over $1 million to deduct net operating losses from their taxable incomes and limit business tax credits to $5 million a year.

[00:18:56] Cal tax estimates it would increase corporate tax revenue by $15.9 billion over the next four years.

[00:19:03] So he's not he's not raising taxes.

[00:19:06] He's just figuring out ways to make you pay more taxes on laws that are already on the books.

[00:19:15] So, but again, he's not raising taxes according to him. He's not not raising taxes.

[00:19:20] All right. Now that we sort of have an introductory feeling for the budget, you ready to jump into some Gavin Newsom spin?

[00:19:30] This is the spin room with Gavin Newsom because we skipped the whole budget.

[00:19:34] We saved you an hour of watching his budget proposals and we're just skipping right to the grilling.

[00:19:40] Are you ready for the spin room?

[00:19:42] I am as ready as I'll ever be.

[00:19:45] The spin room with Gavin Newsom.

[00:19:47] Let's do it.

[00:19:50] Lead to this extreme volatility and financial projections because we didn't think through or even consider that the IRS would delay taxes in 55 of the 58 counties in the state of California on multiple occasions.

[00:20:06] In one occasion, we read about it and we're sitting here going, wait a second. We got to pull this budget together.

[00:20:14] And not just for the May revise.

[00:20:16] And I was very you go back to that May revise presentation and sometimes it would be good to listen.

[00:20:21] Making the point around this uncertainty and it also was reflected in all those vetoes that everyone loves to hate.

[00:20:29] Where I said, we can't afford to do this.

[00:20:35] And so we're getting through that and hopefully we're on the other side of that.

[00:20:43] And this has been a very challenging experience for the team.

[00:20:48] And because they just collected the revenue, I mean just getting this to the printer, moving this thing, getting it to you, getting this presentation up was done in a very short period of time during the holidays.

[00:21:00] So just hats off to team finance, to all their hard work. Joe and Erica, thank you.

[00:21:09] To those poor souls like Jason Elliott that get burdened with putting the slide presentation together and working through and team comms and Anthony York who's been doing this magnificent job all this time for us.

[00:21:25] And we're certainly prepared to work through.

[00:21:29] So thank you all so much for your time and attention.

[00:21:32] And I think there are one or two people that may have some questions about this project.

[00:21:38] Oh, I missed it. I missed it. I must have to go back.

[00:21:43] Historic ways and we're trying everything we can flood the zone to address those issues.

[00:21:48] But one of the issues that remains in this state is just a constant and never ending assault on our values and things that I hold.

[00:22:00] And I think the vast majority of Californians hold dear. So I'm for Brent, California, and I'm going to be a little bit more pointed, a little more aggressive in making the case.

[00:22:09] And I think that's something that's been in some of the reporting around the last few weeks related to this budget presentation.

[00:22:17] I think is done some harm.

[00:22:21] And so I hope that's considered. And if that's your story, so be it.

[00:22:28] But I hope the story is one of resilience.

[00:22:31] As I began recognizes this is a story of correction and normalcy.

[00:22:37] And one that we in some respects anticipate.

[00:22:43] I forget where it is. I was I thought I wrote it down correctly.

[00:22:48] Anyway, he gets really flustered about the Wall Street Journal editorial board because they keep writing about the wealth tax in California that keeps popping up to his credit.

[00:22:58] To his credit, Gavin Newsom has vetoed any idea of a wealth tax.

[00:23:03] And this was proposed by Alex Lee last year.

[00:23:06] The wealth tax. Let me see if I can find it. Basically, this is from Bloomberg.

[00:23:11] It has three components. The first a wealth tax of 1% on household wealth over 50 million and 1.5 on wealth over 1 billion would apply starting 2024.

[00:23:20] So he proposed this last year.

[00:23:22] And to those with over 50 million starting 2026, it would be based on worldwide net worth with some exceptions and would apply to full time, part time and temporary residence subject to apportionment.

[00:23:34] The second component is an exit tax structure that allows the wealth tax to be applied for several years after a taxpayer leaves California.

[00:23:41] So that means they would want to tax you if you're a wealthy person and you leave California because you're like screw this, I'm out.

[00:23:49] So also include provisions that enable certain taxpayers to defer payment by contracting to pay the tax in the future even if they leave.

[00:23:57] The third component is enabling amendment to the California Constitution.

[00:24:02] So again, to Gavin's credit, it did not pass. He did veto it.

[00:24:10] But there is something we talked about at convention really briefly is this idea of like if it not this year, it could always come up next year.

[00:24:21] And Democratic politicians like Alex Lee are not going to stop doing what they're doing.

[00:24:27] So maybe Gavin keeps voting it down.

[00:24:31] Who's to say the next governor won't not veto it and pass it?

[00:24:36] So it's one of those things they don't they don't do it the first try.

[00:24:41] They're going to like keep trying it, keep tweaking it. They're going to keep introducing it every year until it finally cracks through.

[00:24:48] So he may be getting mad, but the Wall Street Journal is just reporting on what was actually introduced in the legislature.

[00:24:56] All right, so let's go to the first question, which I believe was 53.

[00:25:02] Here we go. I have broad strokes ideas it needs to.

[00:25:07] Ten percent's not adequate. I expressed that last year, expressed that the prior year.

[00:25:12] I said we're hitting the cap. We'd love to capture more.

[00:25:16] It led to, by the way, an 18.1 billion dollar tax rebate, largest in U.S. history.

[00:25:22] I don't read about that all the time.

[00:25:25] So I'll say it a second time.

[00:25:29] In fact, the last there were a few dangling checks went out just last month.

[00:25:33] 18.1 billion dollars. So we created the reserves and answer your question very specifically.

[00:25:38] The reserve construct was created after the GAN limit was advanced.

[00:25:43] And I just think we've got to modernize our thinking as it relates to that relationship.

[00:25:49] And we've got to reconcile the volatility of the capital gains, which I think only will become more and more volatile on the nature of the macroeconomics.

[00:25:58] Going forward. So we've been in discussions last year with members legislation. They had more of a GAN focus. Some of them.

[00:26:07] Ours was more just a clean prop to reserve, increase focus and everyone has ideas in between.

[00:26:14] And a lot of folks wanted to stack it up with other things. And we all took a step back.

[00:26:18] I want to take a step back to the table on this and work together, but with some humility.

[00:26:26] Full transparency. We decided to do some survey work on this with the public.

[00:26:32] We got a work to do. The public doesn't necessarily see that as well. How's that going to advantage me?

[00:26:38] And so we just have work to do on this. And so specific proposal, no, but directional desire. Absolutely.

[00:26:46] And then you framed this budget as a normalization or a couple of very big.

[00:26:51] You're looking at cuts and delays, though, for programs like climate and housing.

[00:26:56] Do you think you overpromised on some of those things? Absolutely not unprecedented commitments on climate that actually will grow because of the support of the federal government.

[00:27:06] So you may you may I may have understated our capacity because I never could have imagined the kind of support coming from the federal government and the leverage from the private sector as well.

[00:27:19] That is a big part of it. So I don't feel that's the case. And again, on the housing side, SQL bills, reforms we've advanced together in partnership with the legislature and unprecedented billions and billions.

[00:27:31] Forty billion again since twenty nineteen in that space.

[00:27:37] That was a pace that broke all my expectations before I got here.

[00:27:42] I realized I had to turn my mic back on because someone is a little excited in the background.

[00:27:53] Interesting that his big promises all rely on federal money.

[00:28:01] Mm hmm. He brings it up a lot.

[00:28:04] It almost makes it seem like, well, you know, because we've been working with this administration, we've been able to do X, Y and Z.

[00:28:11] And we've got gotten so much federal money. Federal government's thirty one trillion dollars in debt, folks like we there's no secret about what's going on with the federal government.

[00:28:23] If your budget, I guess I mean, all states do this.

[00:28:26] All states do look at how much money they can get from the federal government and put it into their budget.

[00:28:33] But maybe don't over promise on a lot of these things, thinking that Uncle Joe is going to bail you out from the federal government.

[00:28:40] And then when your budget comes in way under, like somehow you're going to make it work.

[00:28:46] So I thought that was an interesting tidbit where he goes, you know, because the federal government's been so nice to us.

[00:28:53] We've been able to get a lot of this stuff done, but it doesn't mean that California on its own has been able to actually get it done.

[00:29:01] They were kind of waiting on somebody else's money. Any thoughts?

[00:29:05] Any thoughts? Right. Well, to break that down into very something very digestible, it's like imagine if you or I were going to buy a house and you were like separately, we're not married.

[00:29:16] We're not siblings. We have different parents. But can you imagine if we're like, it's OK, I can't afford this house, but I have a great relationship with my parents.

[00:29:23] They'll back me up if I, you know, or like depending on literally like if my mortgage falls short, my down payment falls short, I'll just call my parents.

[00:29:33] Like, well, yeah. Your parents aren't necessarily always going to be there. They're not necessarily going to have the budget and they don't necessarily have to or want to.

[00:29:42] And you know, fall for your mistakes. So I mean, get that money now, Newsom, while you can, because if Trump gets reelected, I doubt Trump will be issuing huge checks to California to take on climate change or whatever, you know, pie in the sky ideas you have.

[00:29:59] Next question. This is from one of our. Go ahead. So I was just gonna say, I don't know how much we'll get to, but he does bring up the federal budget many times and his relationship with you know, we've got a we've got a great relationship with that administration.

[00:30:13] So that's OK. That's OK. It just so if you if anyone goes and watches this for themselves, he does bring it up many times like we're very much dependent on that. The relationship, my guess of the money.

[00:30:24] Yeah, we need that. That's sweet, sweet federal grant money. This is a question from one of our favorite reporters actually is a value who might be the only journalist in Sacramento who actually cares about pressing politicians and getting the truth freezes and contracts, etc.

[00:30:40] The real for all the read the bulk of it is represented in what we're proposing. Thanks. Yeah.

[00:30:48] Hi, Governor Ashley Zavala with KCRA 3. I know you mentioned your intention to tap into the rainy day fund and withdraw money which would require you to declare a budget state of emergency essentially. When do you intend or would you intend to declare that when we need to?

[00:31:09] When we need to not for many, many months. So this is the parameters, the framework. Look forward to the feedback and insight, sort of ingenuity of members, the legislature and their staff.

[00:31:23] And we'll be able to compare and contrast and we'll land appropriately before well before I signed the budget in and around May probably.

[00:31:33] And I asked. Sorry, okay. So we'll just make a determination at that time on the basis of the feedback in the back and forth.

[00:31:39] And I ask because in your letter to the legislature you note how last year you and state lawmakers crafted a budget blindfolded essentially without a lot of the information you needed to do so.

[00:31:50] And so I know there's an appetite in the legislature to potentially open up last year's budget with some tweaks and changes. And I didn't know if that rainy day.

[00:31:59] We've got 7.8 percent, 7.8 billion dollars of proof points in terms of workload reductions that are already represented. There's nothing that stops legislature from moving tomorrow.

[00:32:09] They're in session. People want to move to midyear cuts. Let's have that conversation. That's that's hey I'm just one member of this team.

[00:32:19] And so we put this presentation out with humility and grace, respect, admiration for the partnership we've had with them over the years.

[00:32:27] The work we've done to build up this resiliency in these unprecedented reserves and cash status bond rating included.

[00:32:33] And so I think it would be a positive thing to move. We have nine if you want to know.

[00:32:41] You didn't ask, but I'll offer. I have nine early action items that we will be asking to work with the legislature on.

[00:32:52] They don't total the entire budget, but they're just early actions we want to move. So that's indicative of a desire to move. Let's go.

[00:33:00] And finally, and you've been clear about the wealth tax.

[00:33:07] I was going to say it sounded like a lot of Gavin Newsom gobbledygook. Like I'm not sure what he was really referring. I mean, you know, he says all this stuff about humility and grace and respect and stuff like that.

[00:33:21] I take it as he's put the proposal out. It's now up to the legislature to propose their legislature or their budget because well, Gavin Newsom proposes a budget.

[00:33:33] This is a little bit of civics while he proposes the budget. It doesn't mean the legislature is going to actually approve it because the legislature is the one who controls the money.

[00:33:45] So he's just kind of saying like, hey, here's my idea of where we should go.

[00:33:50] So now he's kind of thing. Okay, the balls in your court. There's some early action items. There's some mid-year cuts we can start making.

[00:33:57] And I guess they can go from there, but it does sound like he's not ruling out that they might have to declare a budget emergency.

[00:34:07] He says, you know, he doesn't say with certainty they don't have to like they're going to figure this out.

[00:34:12] He did kind of say like, well, we wouldn't have to figure it out for many, many months. There's not that many months left in the year already.

[00:34:18] We're almost halfway through the year. So there is a possibility he does have to declare a budget emergency and then he can tap into rainy day funds.

[00:34:28] Right. He just didn't specify at what point we.

[00:34:32] Well, he didn't really specify at what point we get there. Now I want to say I do appreciate that he is our our leader, so to speak. He's the manager of our state.

[00:34:40] And, you know, like if you were on a boat, you wouldn't want to know that your captain is absolutely freaking out.

[00:34:47] Like it's his job to kind of keep control and keep everything stable so that everyone doesn't start panicking and go into chaos.

[00:34:55] So I do appreciate that he's kind of trying to be like we're not there yet, but I feel like she was asking for maybe a number or certain things.

[00:35:04] Like, OK, at what point? What has to fall for us to then declare that state? And of course, he didn't really give an answer to that.

[00:35:11] And so you and I are left here going, OK, same thing. Like, well, when if so, when, you know, I guess we'll just wait and see.

[00:35:20] Yeah, I guess we'll.

[00:35:23] And this is like a short time, like so they have to get it done by June 15th. We're already almost at the end of May.

[00:35:32] So granted, this this video is like a couple of weeks ago, so this isn't like fresh off the.

[00:35:40] But you know, is it a couple of weeks or was it last week? I feel like it was last week.

[00:35:44] I feel like it was the first or second week of May. I don't where we are today. We're at the 20 something. I don't know.

[00:35:50] I've lost. Yeah, we're almost in the.

[00:35:51] But I think it might be 1010 or so days old at least.

[00:35:57] Yeah, so it's they they got to get cracking. That's for sure. When you got to figure out how many billions of dollars and.

[00:36:05] All right. Next question. Let's see what's a good question. I'm trying to figure out.

[00:36:10] I highlighted some that I want to jump to. I'm not going to get to every single question. Let's see.

[00:36:16] I'm trying to figure out.

[00:36:18] I'm deciding between two questions right now because they're both good questions.

[00:36:27] Now, I'll just go to this one.

[00:36:30] I always think we have a lot of time and then like I realized like we don't have as much time as we think.

[00:36:36] I think it's a good problem to have when you do a podcast and you have more than enough content to fill up your hour of that report.

[00:36:45] And we are deeply mindful of what will come next in partnership with the caucus and the work continues in that space.

[00:36:55] But just might add right now they didn't they have put together a kind of they had put together a reparation task force and they hit the ground running.

[00:37:05] So I would understand. I would think that you're mindful of that too, correct?

[00:37:10] No, I like Kathy Hoke will reach out to me on this and aware of what they're doing. They're just starting a process. We just ended the first phase of that process.

[00:37:19] We're now entering second phase of the process. And as I said, working collaboratively, I don't want to get over my.

[00:37:25] So this was this wasn't the question I was flipping to. This was from a reporter, the California Black Media, and he was basically asking about reparations.

[00:37:33] This is the end of the question. But the next question is the next question. The question I want to focus on skis on here because of the partnership we're forming with the Black Caucus in this space to take the next steps based upon the recommendations of the report.

[00:37:47] Thank you. Good afternoon, Governor Travis Gilmore with the Epoch Times.

[00:37:52] Considering that the deficit is related to miss it, income and corporate tax revenues. What role did the loss of businesses and residents over the last few years play in the situation?

[00:38:03] I don't know that it's it's played. I saw where you saw. I think it's on page if I'm right, someone should give me lunch page 149.

[00:38:15] I think there's the demographic page in the budget. I'm just curious if that is right.

[00:38:20] It lays out how it's significantly tempered. It is right. Okay, so someone get me lunch. I'd like a chicken salad.

[00:38:34] Between July 2022 and July 2023 0.1 percent. You know, there are over 18 states, a lot of red states, which I know is reported often about as well as other states that have seen some modest declines. California, it's significantly tempered.

[00:38:47] So no, I don't think it's played an outsize role at all.

[00:38:51] And what can the state do to reinvigorate or to convince businesses to come back to the state? These that have left and then also the Census Bureau shows that while the states, while the population decline has been mitigated by births and by migration from international sources, the outflow shows higher education and therefore higher income, leaving the state in a higher number than our country.

[00:39:07] What can we do to reverse that trend?

[00:39:08] Well, we've been we've been making these unprecedented investments. But you know, let's I think you guys are familiar. Been around a long time. This is a story written every 10 years in California.

[00:39:20] 1994 Time magazine, the end of California, the end of the world.

[00:39:24] Same same arguments.

[00:39:27] California is a temple of the American economy in terms of American recovery, in terms of job creation, innovation, entrepreneurial spirit.

[00:39:35] We gave you a demonstrable example that on quantum and immunology and the work we're doing research and development, pushing out the boundaries of the world.

[00:39:41] The reason A.I. dominates in California dominates, no one comes close 35 top 50 companies, market cap companies in the world are in the state of California.

[00:39:50] And that's the reason why we're doing research and development.

[00:39:54] And that's the reason why we're doing research and development.

[00:39:57] California, the reason A.I. dominates in California dominates, no one comes close 35 top 50 companies, market cap companies in the world are in the state of California.

[00:40:12] San Francisco see dramatic investments and growth in that space. More scientists, researchers, Nobel laureates, engineers, patents than any other state in America.

[00:40:21] One of the top growing economies of the last five years.

[00:40:24] So I just dismiss with respect that narrative.

[00:40:27] That's just folks painting a picture and coloring it in because they're just focusing on one side of the ledger.

[00:40:33] And I just couldn't be more proud.

[00:40:36] Granted, if you don't know who the epoch times is epoch times is right leaning.

[00:40:42] So you could you could sense a little bit more fervor.

[00:40:48] I guess you could say a little more fire on and his response of kind of like he's a little bit more defensive on that.

[00:40:56] Sure, it's great that Elon Musk came back to Silicon Valley.

[00:41:00] Great. It's great that the Silicon Valley is still existing and they're still tech billionaires.

[00:41:06] I want to know how many small businesses companies that make under five million dollars, two million dollars.

[00:41:17] Let's just say two million dollars are leaving the state.

[00:41:23] And that I think would be more interesting.

[00:41:27] Any kind of a cell like, you know, all engineers and Nobel laureates like who who gives a crap about Nobel laureates when we're talking about businesses like it's he's he's kind of like a

[00:41:38] kind of he's he's putting the smoke screen of talking points from a stump speech.

[00:41:46] He's probably said a thousand times about California and how it's the tempo of the economy.

[00:41:52] We're growing, blah, blah, blah.

[00:41:54] But we just talked about two weeks ago or how many it wasn't that long ago.

[00:42:00] The amount of jobs that California has lost.

[00:42:04] It's the highest unemployment in the country.

[00:42:06] They just posted one hundred and sixty two thousand job losses over the past twelve months.

[00:42:14] So to put it in perspective, one hundred and sixty two thousand jobs lost in California alone, the U.S. government when they they do their 80 P payroll and Labor Department all that stuff.

[00:42:31] And you watch the financial news and they go, what's the jobs report?

[00:42:34] You know, how many jobs have we had?

[00:42:36] I think this past month they came well under expectations.

[00:42:40] I think they only added one hundred seventy five thousand in the entire country.

[00:42:43] So to put that in perspective, the entire country only added one hundred seventy five thousand seven thousand jobs.

[00:42:51] California lost one hundred and sixty two thousand in the past twelve months and it still has the highest unemployment in the country.

[00:42:59] So again, great.

[00:43:02] Tesla's back. Amazing.

[00:43:04] A.I. is killing it.

[00:43:06] Awesome that billionaires can afford to buy their rich homes in Marin County or wherever they want to live.

[00:43:12] It doesn't change the narrative that like normal businesses, middle class and upper middle class just aren't making it in California and are probably leaving.

[00:43:21] And add that to the well on top of covid closures.

[00:43:25] And yet I do wonder how much that added up to this loss here that we're talking about.

[00:43:31] Yeah, actually, I was reading a little there was a post on I think it was The Chronicle or SF gate that a couple of like historic places in Fisherman's Wharf found a place to live.

[00:43:49] So there's a couple of places in Fisherman's Wharf, the grotto being one of them.

[00:43:53] If you're in San Francisco or you know San Francisco, you know the grotto has been around for like a hundred years.

[00:43:58] It's been there forever.

[00:44:00] They closed and they're leaving.

[00:44:02] There's another place that closed as well, like a place that's been around forever.

[00:44:06] They're now suing the city of San Francisco because of business closures during covid because of the shutdowns and all that stuff.

[00:44:13] So it's interesting that now these businesses in San Francisco that barely made it out because San Francisco was one of the toughest on covid restrictions.

[00:44:22] Now you have these famous landmarks in San Francisco suing the city for millions and millions of dollars for what happened to them.

[00:44:30] So just goes to show if historic landmarks in San Francisco, you know Gavin Newsom's hometown or favorite town.

[00:44:38] Is he from San Francisco?

[00:44:40] He's from Bay Area.

[00:44:41] We know that.

[00:44:42] Yeah, I mean he was the mayor there for a while so he has roots there.

[00:44:46] Yeah, so you know former mayor of San Francisco probably went to the grotto, knows what it is.

[00:44:51] They're now suing the city for millions of dollars due to covid lockdowns.

[00:44:55] So again to your point how many businesses couldn't sue the city for that and just got up and left and just said I'm out of here.

[00:45:03] I'm not doing or they just closed like they couldn't afford it.

[00:45:06] Yeah.

[00:45:08] All right.

[00:45:09] Next question.

[00:45:14] There's a lot of questions.

[00:45:17] If you're you know a masochist like us, you can certainly go find this YouTube video and watch all two hours yourself.

[00:45:24] I will admit I did not watch the first hour.

[00:45:27] So if you watch all two hours we should send you like a free shirt or something.

[00:45:33] But yeah, we suffer.

[00:45:36] We suffer.

[00:45:38] Because so you guys don't have to.

[00:45:40] So people listening don't have to listen to two hours of Gavin Newsom.

[00:45:44] We suffer.

[00:45:45] We're such martyrs.

[00:45:46] I know.

[00:45:49] If you want to support us, you can buy this nice new merch that we have just to show your support for our suffering.

[00:45:55] All right last question.

[00:45:56] Let's see where is it?

[00:45:59] It's right around here.

[00:46:00] While you do this, I really hate that we keep bringing up COVID.

[00:46:03] But unfortunately the repercussions are still present.

[00:46:07] They're still happening.

[00:46:08] And so I would love to be beyond that.

[00:46:11] Really I would.

[00:46:12] I can't wait for the day when COVID is a distant memory.

[00:46:14] We're like oh yeah that was crazy.

[00:46:17] Well I was reading our article today that because they're having hearings on Capitol Hill about COVID and what happened.

[00:46:25] The former CDC director who was around when COVID started, Robert, what is his name or something, Robert somebody.

[00:46:34] He testified on Capitol Hill that he was actually not of the belief that we needed to do all these lockdowns that we did not have to do social distancing.

[00:46:47] He came out and said that the vaccine has harmed more people than it hurt or it's definitely harmed more people than it helped people.

[00:46:55] That we probably could have just protected people over 60, said make sure people over 60 are fine, let everyone else get it.

[00:47:03] So basically he was reaffirming all the stuff that people have been saying for years and years who were censored, kicked off social media, stuff like that.

[00:47:11] And this is a CDC director.

[00:47:13] He also said that he was not allowed in meetings with Fauci and Dr. Birx.

[00:47:19] He was just kind of locked out of meetings.

[00:47:21] He wasn't allowed to advise on any of this stuff.

[00:47:24] So he had a lot to say that basically everybody who was a critic was absolutely correct.

[00:47:31] And I guess in his mind, he's no longer the CDC director.

[00:47:37] The government got it completely wrong.

[00:47:39] So that's our little bit about COVID.

[00:47:42] All right.

[00:47:44] But you can go read the article.

[00:47:48] It's a good article.

[00:47:49] Berggruen Institute around addressing volatility, looking at the current tax structure, lowering some tax brackets, expanding service sector along lines.

[00:47:59] Most other state, the people of this state going forward.

[00:48:02] Thanks.

[00:48:03] Thanks.

[00:48:04] Hi Governor.

[00:48:07] Daniela Pardo with Spectrum News.

[00:48:09] Governor, you mentioned that accountability is the narrative or the theme of this year.

[00:48:13] And you've said before how you are going to continue to hold local governments accountable for homelessness spending.

[00:48:21] So what is your reaction to more money being poured in and we're just not seeing homelessness rates decline at the level that we all want to?

[00:48:30] My reaction is the frame of your question.

[00:48:32] I want to see the wars not better.

[00:48:36] That's why we required the first accountability plans in California history.

[00:48:40] When I got here, there's no plan for homelessness, no investments in homelessness, no strategies.

[00:48:45] I'll remind you the highest pit count in California history didn't happen the last couple of years.

[00:48:50] It happened in the 2000s.

[00:48:51] 2005 was the highest pick out over 188,000 folks.

[00:48:56] There was no plans, no strategies, no investments of meaning.

[00:49:01] There was investments, largely.

[00:49:04] That changed five years ago.

[00:49:06] Three years ago, my mindset changed even after the first two years that we need to be more focused on accountability.

[00:49:12] That's where the accountability plans, the HAP framework came, et cetera.

[00:49:15] That's the accountability we're seeing in housing now.

[00:49:18] We're seeing that accountability in this Mental Health Service Act reform.

[00:49:21] And we're starting to now talk and socialize more accountability to your question in the homeless of space.

[00:49:27] And that's why I advanced not only the slide, but my narrative around working with the legislature between now and May to be more prescriptive in terms of that accountability before we put any additional resources.

[00:49:44] And Governor, how would you best describe this budget?

[00:49:47] For those who aren't watching and just listening, the hand gestures of Gavin Newsom are always the same.

[00:49:52] The hand gestures of Gavin Newsom are always so expressive.

[00:49:58] Just when you think you've learned all his hand gestures, he adds something else in.

[00:50:03] This is a big one too. He likes this one, which is almost oddly close to if you ever watch Friends, it means something completely different.

[00:50:15] I just want to touch though on that question and his response.

[00:50:19] Okay, yes, accountability in all areas of government. But he's always trying to blame local government for all the problems, avoiding that Sacramento needs accountability and has a lot to do with the problems.

[00:50:34] And he's also always trying to take authority away from the local government. And that just frustrates me because I know you and I are obviously in your local elections matter shirt.

[00:50:42] We're very big on local government. And he's trying to be like, well, it's because there's no accountability in local government.

[00:50:50] And we've talked about this before. They're always trying to blame local government for all the problems and therefore they have an argument to then take control away from local governments because they're going to say local governments failed here, here, here, here, and now we have to take control.

[00:51:07] Yeah, and that's what this question and answer seemed to do yet again. And obviously that just frustrates me. So I just wanted to make that comment.

[00:51:16] I think there was a part earlier in the video where he talked about the importance of localism and I'm like, really? You're going to talk about the importance of localism? I don't think so.

[00:51:27] Mr. COVID czar and sue every school district that doesn't agree with them and stuff like that. Right. I don't think you believe in localism.

[00:51:37] Would you say we're in a financial crisis? How would you?

[00:51:42] I mean, I don't know the word crisis. I mean, we are able to balance the budget.

[00:51:51] You saw the presentation. You saw all the things we're able to commit.

[00:51:54] But you actually weren't able to balance the budget because your projection, your proposed budget still has 24 billion dollars coming up short. So that's great.

[00:52:05] That's great. I mean, that's close, close enough on accounts and horseshoes and hand grenades when it comes to budgets.

[00:52:16] You know, 24 billion dollars is a lot of money that you're you're not accounting for. So yeah, I mean, that's your definition is that you got within 25 billion short.

[00:52:30] Sure, but that's not balancing the budget. That's like if you were looking at your finances and you were like, well, honey, I balanced our checkbook. We're only off by 10,000 dollars.

[00:52:40] I don't think that's balance in your checkbook. I think you've you're still missing 10,000 dollars. So short 10,000 dollars. So yeah.

[00:52:47] The reserves I told you about our cash balance over 91 billion.

[00:52:51] Talk about unprecedented reserves fact we're still paying down long term obligations. Talk about the fact that we did 93% of that surplus. I want a 1.4 billion dollar surplus at one time to prepare for just this kind of scenario.

[00:53:04] Yeah, we're managing it. So no, I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't look I've been I remember I think when we had 177, but I remember people calling it is a crisis and we had 100 billion dollar surplus.

[00:53:17] So you'll find people that will say this. How could I? I mean, I'm not that this is not my first.

[00:53:23] I've been on Planet Earth. I don't think he completed one full complete sentence and that I think he just got so flustered. He was like hundred bill night 91.

[00:53:35] Budget rainy day Planet Earth, not born yesterday.

[00:53:45] California Thank you very much. He did not complete a single full thought. I think he just had a short circuit on that question for some reason.

[00:53:50] reason. I don't I don't know what he was trying to say. Also,

[00:53:53] if he's talking about typing into rainy day funds, that would

[00:53:57] also mean he's already planning on declaring a budget

[00:54:00] emergency.

[00:54:01] Right? I was gonna say doesn't that go back to that question

[00:54:04] that actually asked.

[00:54:06] So he is planning on typing our rainy day funds.

[00:54:11] Interesting. Well, maybe, you know, uncle Joe can send them

[00:54:15] some more money to bail him out.

[00:54:17] He's gonna go into that right now.

[00:54:20] Oh, deadly. Okay, I think he does.

[00:54:24] So I get it. But no, we're we're we're prepared for this. We're

[00:54:29] managing it. And I hope I'm coming across as not a hair on

[00:54:34] fire governor right now. I will get through it.

[00:54:36] That's actually you are coming across as a hair on fire because

[00:54:39] you didn't complete one thought other than just

[00:54:43] yelling stuff about numbers and rainy day funds.

[00:54:46] Also, do not lie a match around him because his hair

[00:54:49] will go up in flames quickly.

[00:54:51] That's an oil slick waiting to happen on fire message to the

[00:54:56] average Californian who isn't sitting in this room and isn't

[00:54:59] going to go through all the documents that we're going to

[00:55:01] go to through. What is your message to them about this

[00:55:04] budget if they were to just watch you for a few seconds?

[00:55:07] Well, I hope I you know, I hope they appreciate the close

[00:55:10] to $20 billion tax rebates last few years hope they

[00:55:13] appreciate the expansion of childcare and healthcare.

[00:55:16] I hope they appreciate the buyouts I've given you I hope

[00:55:18] the that made you feel better that you all got $200 in you

[00:55:25] know, a check a $200 check in the mail. I hope that helped

[00:55:29] made you feel better that I can buy your vote again. That

[00:55:32] was good.

[00:55:33] guarantee you we got nothing to appreciate in my household.

[00:55:37] Now, so sorry,

[00:55:39] how we got one. And, you know, we're like, okay, thank

[00:55:45] you, California. We're going on a date night. Thanks to

[00:55:49] California.

[00:55:51] Ernie earn income tax credit child tech.

[00:55:54] What's that?

[00:55:54] I won't go into it. I was gonna say except that that was

[00:55:56] literally your money.

[00:55:59] It's your tax money.

[00:56:03] Right.

[00:56:03] So

[00:56:05] so thank you for giving us our money back. So we can go

[00:56:09] on a simple date night.

[00:56:11] Tax credit the work we're doing create a brand new

[00:56:13] great pre K for all the work we're doing create child savings

[00:56:16] accounts for their kids. Work we're doing offset the burdens

[00:56:19] of food insecurity by being the first thing us to provide

[00:56:22] universal meals, investments, the health work we're doing

[00:56:27] that work we're doing to clean up the air and water.

[00:56:29] They're proud of that fact that we're leading the world

[00:56:31] not just this nation and low carbon green growth and the

[00:56:34] fact that we continue to be one of the most dynamic and

[00:56:36] diverse economies on

[00:56:38] the planet.

[00:56:39] Yeah,

[00:56:40] I want to give credit recorded is due.

[00:56:43] Okay, being born and raised here. I've lived in Orange

[00:56:46] County my entire life.

[00:56:48] I will say our water our ocean is way cleaner. It is

[00:56:55] than it was when I was a child. Like, okay. It is there

[00:57:00] is a noticeable difference.

[00:57:03] So

[00:57:04] yeah, I do remember the first time I drove into California

[00:57:10] and California into

[00:57:14] LA. It was back when I was in high school.

[00:57:18] And

[00:57:20] I just remember there was a yellow haze over the entire

[00:57:24] city. And I was like, Oh, that's disgusting. That was my

[00:57:27] first impression of LA was

[00:57:29] yellow. That's just only

[00:57:31] but I remember the next time I went I was like,

[00:57:34] that's, that's not as bad.

[00:57:39] I remember the last time so I guess it got a little bit

[00:57:42] better. So

[00:57:43] okay, out of that, I know I'm proud of the state. I

[00:57:47] think they're right to be concerned about affordability.

[00:57:51] We agree with that. That's why we're doing a lot of

[00:57:52] things not to subsidize costs but to reduce costs and

[00:57:56] create our own naloxone, doing our own insulin,

[00:57:59] looking new and novel strategies to reduce health

[00:58:01] care costs, created Office of Health Care Affordability.

[00:58:04] The work we're doing across the spectrum. I hope they

[00:58:07] see that we have them in mind and we care about

[00:58:09] them wherever they are.

[00:58:10] Rural Californians, unprecedented investments in rural

[00:58:13] California over the last few years. And

[00:58:17] I just hope they know they matter and we care.

[00:58:20] Doesn't matter if they vote for

[00:58:23] former ex-president to be their next president or

[00:58:25] the current one. They matter. We care. And so

[00:58:28] that's my message to all Californians. And we're

[00:58:32] doing our best and I know they're working hard

[00:58:34] and they're doing their best. And I just want

[00:58:36] to thank all of them for what they've suffered

[00:58:39] through the last many years with a global

[00:58:42] pandemic, social unrest and a lot of anxiety

[00:58:45] in our politics, a lot of manipulation,

[00:58:48] misinformation, disinformation, a lot of

[00:58:50] partisanship. It's hard. And so I also want

[00:58:54] to acknowledge that and thank them for being

[00:58:57] as resilient as they are.

[00:59:01] And with that, every outlet in the room has gotten it.

[00:59:04] So, yep, that's it.

[00:59:08] Somehow I don't believe him when he says

[00:59:11] if you want to vote for a former president.

[00:59:15] We all know who he's referring to. Somehow

[00:59:17] I don't believe he has the same respect

[00:59:20] for those type of Californians.

[00:59:23] I mean, we've seen it firsthand. If you don't

[00:59:25] agree with Gavin Newsom in Sacramento, they

[00:59:27] will drop the hammer on you and Rob Bonta

[00:59:29] will sue you into oblivion. So but there's

[00:59:33] the budget, give you an idea of what is

[00:59:36] going on. Like we said, they still have to

[00:59:39] go back and forth. The legislature is going

[00:59:41] to sink their teeth into it. They'll send

[00:59:43] something back. They'll go back and forth

[00:59:45] with Gavin Newsom. And then eventually

[00:59:47] they're going to have to sign by I think

[00:59:48] June 15th. That's the deadline to

[00:59:49] absolutely sign. I don't know if though

[00:59:53] I think it's likely they probably will

[00:59:55] declare a budget emergency if they can't

[00:59:57] figure this stuff out and how they're

[00:59:58] going to balance the budget, which means

[01:00:00] they'll tap into our rainy day funds,

[01:00:03] which down the line doesn't help

[01:00:04] California. But yeah, so California has

[01:00:08] to pull its purse strings a little

[01:00:11] tighter. It's a we're not living as

[01:00:14] high on the hog here in California, I

[01:00:15] guess that $100 billion surplus that

[01:00:17] goes fast, you know, life comes at you

[01:00:19] fast, Gavin.

[01:00:20] Well, that's completely wrong.

[01:00:23] Which we talked about on our live

[01:00:25] podcast from Saturday at the convention.

[01:00:28] So if you guys want to go listen to

[01:00:29] parts of that, because I question if

[01:00:33] the $100 billion surplus was even real,

[01:00:37] like I wonder if that was if that

[01:00:39] even actually existed. And I don't have

[01:00:41] the answer to that. I just I question

[01:00:43] that. But we did also talk about

[01:00:45] since since that video that we just

[01:00:49] watched since that was made, they did

[01:00:51] do I forget what day it was last

[01:00:54] week, the week before suspense file

[01:00:56] day. And so they did have to start

[01:00:58] throwing a lot of these bills away

[01:01:01] because they simply couldn't come up

[01:01:03] with the budget for them. And so you

[01:01:05] can find that it's on audio now.

[01:01:07] And of course, on YouTube or rumble

[01:01:09] and I don't remember what our but we

[01:01:10] definitely did touch on that about

[01:01:13] some of the bills that they've had to

[01:01:15] throw out the single payer tax, not

[01:01:18] taxpayer health care, the single

[01:01:20] payer health care bill that they

[01:01:21] were trying to do for California,

[01:01:22] that one was thrown into the

[01:01:23] assessments file. Because there's

[01:01:26] things like that they just we can't

[01:01:28] afford. And so in some ways, that's

[01:01:29] a good thing that they're they're

[01:01:30] starting to throw away some of these

[01:01:32] outrageous bills. But yeah, if you

[01:01:35] want a little bit of an update,

[01:01:37] go listen to that I apologize for

[01:01:38] not knowing. We went for almost four

[01:01:41] hours. I can't memorize every

[01:01:43] little minute.

[01:01:44] I can't remember specifically where we

[01:01:46] talked about that. You'd have to go

[01:01:49] through it. Just listen to the

[01:01:53] whole thing. Just make it a whole

[01:01:54] thing. So I think that that kind of

[01:01:58] sums it up. This isn't the final

[01:02:01] budget, they're still gonna have to

[01:02:02] go back and forth. We'll keep you

[01:02:04] updated on what's going on. And

[01:02:08] what kind of budget they do end up

[01:02:09] passing as well as the bills that

[01:02:11] die because of this budget and

[01:02:13] stuff like that or the budget that

[01:02:14] eventually gets passed. Yeah, I

[01:02:18] think he you know, Gavin Newsom is

[01:02:20] slick. He knows how to spin words

[01:02:23] and make it sound great. Like he

[01:02:26] always does. But you know, a

[01:02:28] little bit of research and a

[01:02:29] little bit of pushback. You can

[01:02:31] find that a lot of this stuff is

[01:02:32] just fabricated political

[01:02:33] nonsense. So that's I guess my

[01:02:36] final thoughts on this is, you

[01:02:38] know, we'll wait to see how this

[01:02:40] all shakes out. And what

[01:02:42] happens? Any final thoughts?

[01:02:46] Nope, I think I said them.

[01:02:48] Awesome. All right. Well, yeah,

[01:02:50] the audio version of the whole

[01:02:52] convention is up on Spotify, Apple,

[01:02:53] Google, all those places. So if

[01:02:55] you want to listen in the car or

[01:02:56] at work or wherever, definitely

[01:02:59] go check that out. To all the

[01:03:01] people who are tuning in for

[01:03:02] the first time who met us at

[01:03:04] convention, thanks for tuning in

[01:03:05] for the first time. And like

[01:03:08] we say on every show, it

[01:03:09] would make sure a like share

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[01:03:22] yeah, we'll see you on the next

[01:03:23] one. Later, everybody.

[01:03:36] Thank you for listening to

[01:03:37] another episode of California

[01:03:39] Underground. If you like what

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