Newsom should be as enthusiastic about results as it is about spending – Orange County Register

“The glee when @GavinNewsom talks about spending billions of dollars, as if it were the end instead of the means, odd. Never seen a politician giddy and spend like it was a big hit,” California Republican strategist Rob Stuzman tweeted this week.

The tweet came as Governor Gavin Newsom revealed his fourth budget, summarizing Newsom’s entire first term.

Nothing has really changed under Newsom, or at least no issues have been resolved and no progress has been made, but he’s spent a lot of money.

Newsom burned through record budgets and massive surpluses with glee. This time, the projected figure is $286.4 billion, up nine percent from last year’s record budget and a surplus of $45.7 billion.

Newsom told us all the amazing things he was going to do on a budget, like all the things he said he was doing on a budget before.

But what has that spending brought us?

Last year Newsom bragged about his huge investment in public schools. Unfortunately, those schools have been burdened with self-inflicted wounds largely from distance learning, part-time learning, teacher shortages, student mental health issues, and poor health conditions. perpetual school leave.

And this week, we learned that according to standardized test scores, only 49% of students met or exceeded standards in English, 34% in math, and 29% in science. Not surprisingly, the state Board of Education is pushing to get rid of these tests.

I’m sure someone reading this will say that these scores are made at a time when both teachers and students are under great pressure from COVID restrictions.

While that may be true to some extent, this year’s score isn’t really much worse than the score just before COVID.

Last year, Newsom introduced a “historic $12 billion package to confront the homelessness crisis,” according to his press release. Apparently, that plan would “end homelessness within five years.”

Ironically, Newsom made the same announcement as the Mayor of San Francisco to end homelessness for ten years. Well, his mayor plan failed to deliver on its promise and neither did his chief executive officer.

Newsom is almost a year into his five-year plan. Come out and tell me if we are 1/5th the way to ending home homelessness.

When asked when Californians will start seeing the results of all this homeless spending, Newsom replied, “I’m not the mayor of California,” according to reporter Joe Garofoli of San Francisco Chronicle.

That’s a really bad statement since many mayors are essentially governors of their cities. But that’s the typical nonsense we get from Newsom when forced into his impressive string of failures, preceded by a lot of spending and monumental announcements.

If you ask Newsom and he gives a coherent answer, he will likely say that his biggest successes have come with his response to COVID. While it’s true that California’s death rate per capita is relatively good among states (14th), the overall picture is much worse.

Politico assessed all states and found that when looking at health, economic, social, and educational outcomes, California ranked in the bottom half.

Of course, health is very important, but there are trade-offs that we all agree are important, like socializing, working, education, and that’s why no one argues. about a two-year decommissioning.

At this point in the column, I can go in any direction. I can point to the ridiculous cost of living that caused Newsom’s failure to crush low- and middle-income families.

I can point out that Newsom is incapable of effectively combating unemployment fraud and administering unemployment benefits.

I can point out that retail theft crime is skyrocketing. Or the murder rate.

I can point out that Newsom is incapable of solving the housing crisis, which you remember, he said he would while campaigning for governor. He said he would put the state on track to build 3.5 million new housing units by 2025. And like every other big Newsom announcement, he’s nowhere near. Nowhere.

I can point out that all his huge budget surpluses that tax screams are too high, and the best he can come up with is a gas tax hike vacation. Not a gas tax holiday, a holiday that increases every year. People won’t be charged a few cents more per gallon – nothing more. And in just one year.