GOP to Newsom’s budget plan: ‘The math is not mathing’
California Republican leaders responded to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s updated budget proposal on Thursday morning, objecting to many parts of the proposal, and saying that Californians are paying more, but getting less.
“Californians aren’t stupid,” said Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher, RYuba City, after Newsom announced his $288 billion budget. Gallagher cited billions spent “on homelessness programs that don’t work and a high-speed train to nowhere” as some of Newsom’s particularly egregious budgetary broken promises.
“Newsom played fast and loose with our money and now the game is up,” Gallagher said.
In January, Newsom estimated that California was looking at a deficit of $38 billion, while the Legislative Analyst’s Office predicted a less optimistic $68 billion deficit. In the plan he announced Thursday, he proposed the $288 billion budget with a $28 billion deficit.
“The first challenge for the super-majority Democratic leadership and the Governor is going to be to figure out what size of a deficit they are going to accept as the actual number,” Assemblyman Joe Patterson, R-Rocklin, told The Sacramento Bee Thursday afternoon.
Republican Assemblyman Vince Fong, R, Bakersfield, who serves as Vice Chair of Assembly Budget Committee , echoed fellow Republicans in a prepared statement Thursday.
“California’s budget situation is a mess,” said Fong. “I have said repeatedly that budget gimmicks, cost shifts and more borrowing only creates more problems in the future.”
Some of the “gimmicks” include proposed withdrawals from state budget reserves, or “rainy day funds.” The Governor’s office has proposed dipping into the state’s $12.2 billion Budget Stabilization Account and another $900 million from the Safety Net Reserve. The $12.2 billion fund would be used over two years.
“Using budget reserves to prop up unsustainable spending is not only unwise,” said Fong, who is running in two concurrent elections, one to keep his seat in the Assembly, and another to replace outgoing Rep. Kevin McCarthy.
“It’s fiscally irresponsible.” Fong’s Senate counterpart, Roger Niello, R-Fair Oaks, said the same.
“At first glance, as I’ve heard kids say these days, the math is not mathing,” said Niello, vice chair of the Senate Budget & Fiscal Review Committee.
“The governor is in denial with these partial and unverified numbers. I was hopeful he would have been more detailed, prudent, and honest with his approach to this deficit,” Niello said.
While Thursday’s budget proposal was “an improvement from January,” Niello told The Bee Thursday afternoon, he, like Patterson, has concerns about the Governor’s Office and the Legislative Analyst’s Office differing deficit estimates.
“If you have a lower deficit, you make your solutions a little easier,” Niello said. “The problem is, you end up shooting too low and you carry your problems into the subsequent years. That’s probably the most worrisome part.”
Like Fong, he’s concerned about Newsom’s “gimmicks” and “onetime fixes,” such as Newsom’s proposal to shift June 2025 payroll funds into July 2025, thus pushing billions of dollars into a new fiscal year.
“When he leaves us behind and travels to the Vatican, hopefully he receives divine guidance to complete his May Revision proposal and provides a reasonable and sustainable budget plan that Californians deserve.”
Newsom is scheduled to travel to Rome on May 15, for a climate solutions summit at the Vatican.
“Now is not the time for a luxurious European vacation,” said Senate Minority Leader Brian W. Jones, R-San Diego. “We need the governor and the legislature to enact quickly a spending plan that addresses Democrats’ years of overspending. Fixing this budget disaster should be the highest priority of every elected state official right now.”