Thank you, Gavin Newsom. Three days after being caught at a well-attended, unmasked restaurant party at Thomas Keller’s renowned The French Laundry in Napa, CA, Governor Newsom announced he is applying an “emergency brake” on business activities that will affect 94% of California’s population.
“Epic hypocrisy aside,” as the San Diego Union-Tribune reports, the Governor has yet “to release scientific data to support his theory that businesses and restaurants present a disproportionately greater risk.”
While big-box stores and companies with large resources will be able to survive the imposed lockdown, for many small business owners, closing their doors again will mean shutting down for good. And tax revenue shortfalls today will mean slashing state and community services tomorrow.
Orlando’s Disney World a Success
Florida is a perfect example of why it doesn’t have to be this way. Florida state officials approved a carefully considered health/safety protocol to reopen Orlando’s Disney World. To date, there has not been any significant Coronavirus outbreak as a result.
Meanwhile, California officials’ refusal to reopen Disneyland has transformed it into a Tragic Kingdom, where employees have lost their jobs, supporting businesses may not survive, and the local economy is crushed.
Housing costs have reached the point of crisis in California, thanks to the lack of political leadership in Sacramento. It’s the primary factor in California’s high cost of living. As a candidate, Newsom pledged to develop 3.5 million new housing units by 2025. But today, that goal is so far off track as to only exist within the realm of fantasy. California’s out-of-control housing costs are also a key factor in the state’s homelessness crisis. While homelessness has been abating in most of the country, the problem in California has only gotten worse under (Newsom’s) administration.
California – the World’s 5th Largest Economy
Sound management and common-sense policy changes can get the state with abundant resources and the world’s fifth-largest economy solutions back on track. Voters in this past election sent a message that they are tired of ineptitude and government run amok and have an appetite to make positive changes.
Californians voted against every tax-related ballot position championed by Gov. Newsom.
For example, voters defeated Newsom-endorsed Proposition 15, which would have stripped property tax protections for business owners and massively increased the cost of living. The overwhelming win for freelance flexibility of Proposition 22, along with the convincing rejection of affirmative action, rent control and termination of cash bail, show the growing discontent with how Newsom and his one-party Legislature have let their far-left ideology drive policy decisions.
