STEYER WILL WORSEN CALIFORNIA'S PANDEMIC OF UNEMPLOYMENT AND PUBLIC SPENDING

An unemployment pandemic: Another 543,000 Californians filed initial jobless claims last week, bringing the number over the past four weeks to 3.2 million – nearly one-in-five state employees. Less than half of LA County residents have jobs. 
 
A “fair” and “green” recovery? The unemployed are going to have a harder time finding work thanks to Gov. Newsom naming Tom Steyer to lead the state’s new Task Force on Business and Jobs Recovery. Steyer, who devotes his time to atoning for his prior capitalist success, said his goal is to “recover as fast as safely possible from the COVID-19-induced recession and to create a fair, green and prosperous future” that “remedies some of the injustices, which this COVID-19 pandemic has revealed in our society.” Translation: More regulations and barriers to jobs at the worst possible time. 
 
Opposition to Steyer’s green agenda from…. unions?! The state’s 460,000-member Building and Construction Trades Council pushed back on Steyer, noting that up to 14,000 of its members depend on California oil for their jobs. "California is already a leader in the green economy, but we are just trying to keep that economy alive.” 
 
We’re all homeschoolers now: A new statewide poll by the Public Policy Institute of California asked 1,633 Californians about how their kids’ schools were handling remote learning during the pandemic. Seventy percent of public school parents said they are very or somewhat concerned about providing productive learning at home. Nearly half of respondents said the state’s public education system requires “major changes.”
 
“Delays” to “scheduled increases” won’t be enough: California school districts asked Gov. Newsom to delay their scheduled increases in payments to employee pension funds in an effort to remain solvent through this economic crisis. Prediction: Pension obligations will need to be much more fundamentally reformed. 
 
The bill for decades of reckless public spending is coming due: Reports Politico: "Suddenly cash-strapped states and cities are scrambling to head off unprecedented fiscal calamity and are ramping up pressure on Congress after being passed over this week by the latest federal stimulus deal. Local officials… say the need for a bailout is growing more dire by the day.” 

Will Trump Save California? CPC President Will Swaim and CPC Board Member David Bahnsen discuss whether Trump will bail out California despite Mitch McConnell saying that Senate Republicans won’t save the Golden State from its self-inflicted wounds on this week’s episode of National Review’s Radio Free California. 
 
11,000 down, infinity to go: Gov. Newsom proudly announced the procurement of 11,000 hotel rooms for the homeless as a part of his “Project Roomkey” to alleviate the state’s homeless crisis.
 
Venice Beach, far away in time: CPC contributor Edward Ring explains how the “Homeless Industrial Complex” is destroying Venice Beach: “Instead of rounding up homeless people, sorting them according to their various challenges – drug addiction, alcoholism, criminality, mental illness, laziness, or just bad luck – and moving them into supervised camps in low-cost areas of Los Angeles County, the Homeless Industrial Complex has grown into a voracious leviathan, devouring billions in taxpayers’ money. And for all practical purposes, and with all that money, they have just made the problem worse.” Preach. 
 
The next nursing homes? More than 100 residents and staff at a San Francisco homeless shelter tested positive for COVID-19 during the first half of April, according to a new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 
 
Just because you don’t play an instrument doesn’t mean you don’t make music: California Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez proposed legislation to exempt California musicians from AB-5 to allow various musical professionals to work together without being deemed one another's employees. Drop one adjective from that sentence and then we’re talking. 
 
The sacrifice of public service: Anaheim City Manager Chris Zapata is expected to take home a severance package worth about half a million dollars. 
 
Working from home, uncut: A Sacramento TV reporter, working from home like the rest of us, accidentally broadcast her naked husband emerging from the shower. Oops! 
 
Enjoyed this newsletter? Subscribe HERE. Donate HERE.
 
Jordan Bruneau
Communications Director