In November, Californians voted overwhelmingly to strengthen penalties for criminals. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) is still trying to undermine that effort.
Over 68% of California voters supported Proposition 36, which increases penalties for felony drug dealers, serial shoplifters, and smash-and-grab thieves. Newsom opposed it because, despite his attempts to paint himself as some pragmatic centrist, he is a liberal ideologue who believes that the real victims of the criminal justice system are the criminals who get locked up for their crimes.
However, the proposition passed and became law. It was so popular that it received more votes than any other proposition or candidate on the ballot, even more than former Vice President Kamala Harris, a California native, received in the presidential race. Yet, Newsom is still trying to undermine it, refusing to allocate money to help enforce the law in his budget proposals. California Republicans requested a measly $400 million, and even California Democrats agreed to set aside a measlier $100 million.
Newsom’s January budget proposal would total around $322 billion. The GOP spending proposal for Prop 36 would represent 0.12% of that number. Yet, Newsom wants to punt the responsibility to counties because, “There are a lot of supervisors in the counties that promoted it, so this is their opportunity to step up, fund it.”
Newsom didn’t get his way, so he wants to take his ball and his more than $300 billion in taxpayer dollars and go home.
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Newsom is not being a fiscal hawk here. His complaint during the election cycle that Prop 36 was “unfunded” rings hollow when some of his top priorities are also unfunded, from the money pit that is the high-speed rail to his proposal to give free (taxpayer-funded) healthcare to illegal immigrants, which led to Newsom asking for loans so the state could cover its Medi-Cal costs. Newsom simply wants to undermine a tough-on-crime law supported by the vast majority of his state because he opposed it and lost the electoral battle over it in November.
This same mindset has run California into the ground over the past seven years. Newsom would rather waste billions of dollars on his ridiculous pet projects, which have led to budget deficit after budget deficit that must be addressed, than spend a fraction of the money on something voters support to help keep California communities safe. Newsom is not a budget hawk or a pragmatic centrist Democrat. He is a pro-criminal progressive who has no business running a bake sale, let alone the largest state in the country.