California Governor Gavin Newsom speaking at the State of the State address in Sacramento, CA, Mar 8, 2022. (Photo: Sheila Fitzgerald/Shutterstock)
Gov. Newsom Pays Unions Back for Recall Rescue
California: ‘Bloated, sleepy and sloppy state bureaucracy that has festered in mediocrity’
By Katy Grimes, September 12, 2022 2:30 am
California Governor Gavin Newsom was spared the indignity of being recalled by voters in fall of 2021 by California’s powerful and gilded labor unions, which spent more than $25 million in the recall, according to CalMatters. “That’s more money than Hollywood, California’s tech industry, local Indian tribes, and state real estate players spent in the recall race combined,” the Federalist reported.
The Governor apparently did not forget his end of the ostensible deal, rewarding labor with promises of hundreds of thousands of new members (Fast food workers), as well as signing legislation providing tax credits for the union dues of members.
“The new budget passed by lawmakers in mid-June and signed by Governor Newsom two weeks later will take California’s existing tax deduction for union dues payments and turn it into a tax credit capped at 33% of dues paid,” Patrick Gleason, Vice President of State Affairs at Americans for Tax Reform, said in Forbes. “Changing the deduction to a credit makes the union tax break more generous and benefits those who don’t itemize or have a tax liability.”
Moves like this should show American voters exactly who Gavin Newsom would show his loyalty should he run for President.
Ballotpedia explains the tax credit:
“Once implemented, the tax credit would be the first of its kind in the U.S. Union dues are currently tax-deductible in California and some other states. (A tax deduction lowers a person’s taxable income before calculating taxes, while a tax credit reduces the amount of tax a person is responsible for paying.)
Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed SB 154, the Budget Act of 2022, on June 27. On June 30, Newsom signed SB 189, one of several bills “providing for appropriations related to” the budget act. SB 189 says, “Contingent upon future legislation, including future budget appropriations, and subject to a determination in the spring of 2024 that General Fund money over the multiyear forecasts is available to support ongoing augmentations and actions, the following actions will be prioritized: (1) Implement a tax credit under the Personal Income Tax Law to offset a portion of costs associated with union membership.”
The Federalist reported:
Max Nelson, the director of labor policy at the free-market conservative think tank Freedom Foundation, described the legislation as a “bold” mechanism to expand union membership and empower state-sponsored speech. “Taxpayers are being compelled by the force of state law to pay people to pay unions,” Nelson said.
“Big labor groups may also claim the benefits for themselves, where raising dues to cover the difference offered by the tax credit would enrich union leadership who dictate organizations’ political contributions,”
“We’re kind of into some new frontiers here, which will be interesting for both the courts to grapple with and the states,” Nelson told The Federalist, where Democrats have now embraced a measure to directly fund their own allies who, in turn, will “plow money into progressive electoral politics.”
Patrick Gleason continued:
“The first half of 2022 was a mixed bag for California taxpayers who don’t want the state to inflict more costs upon households and the economy. … Many Californians, however, are unlikely to appreciate the fact that Governor Newsom and state legislators created a new tax credit that is unavailable to 84% of Golden State workers. For all the talk about equity & equality coming from the state’s most powerful politicians, California’s new budget takes the state tax code’s already unequal treatment of workers and worsens it.”
But perhaps Lance Christensen, candidate for State Superintendent of Instruction best reminded us in September 2021 right before the Newsom recall election, what really is at stake in the Golden State besides labor union payoffs:
“California still faces substantial, long-term financing troubles. While Gov. Newsom boasts of the biggest state budget in history, the titanic funds undergirding the budget are one-time revenues that will tank once the Federal Reserve stops printing money and Congress avoids propping up spendthrift programs.”
“If a new governor is elected this month, that person will have one year to whip into shape a bloated, sleepy and sloppy state bureaucracy that has festered in mediocrity for years. And if the Legislature or entrenched bureaucracy is going to resist, the governor should plan for a one-hour presser every day to name names and let the people know why things aren’t changing.”
The unions saved Newsom, so a new governor never got the chance to expose the shady, grubby inner workings of California state government. And now Gov. Newsom is discriminatorily rewarding labor unions and ignoring most everything and everyone else.
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Good work Katy. Just keep hoping that the voters would READ facts like this rather than WATCH slick ads on television. Then I keep hoping that we go back to the voting laws of 1999. Only then will we get this “bloated, sleepy, sloppy” state back on track.
HOW ON EARTH is this union “tax credit” not out-and-out BRIBERY? I don’t care if it’s buried in a behemoth budget or handed out in suitcases filled with cash to every union member, it’s still a BRIBE. Is it not? And with our money, yes?
But okay, I will anticipate the usual response that nothing can be done, Newsom can’t be touched no matter WHAT he does. (Really?) The man has been handed his ill-gotten power and has been able to retain it through these crooked maneuvers. Thus I guess we have become bitterly realistic but Jeepers, Wally…… would it be too much to ask that Newsom do something useful with his undeserved power by actually helping California and its residents instead of continuing to turn the state into a fetid, stagnant, repulsive, crime-ridden, regulation-saddled, unaffordable and unlivable hell hole that is once again burning so uncontrollably the fires are creating their own weather systems as we speak?
At the very least we need to scream about this stuff and spread the word at every opportunity so that the rest of the country is made well aware of what our governor is about. What a nightmare.
Our “Young Global Leader” is working the World Economic Forum’s Agenda 2030/”Build Back Better” plan by systematically destroying as many logical economic systems as possible, and accelerating the state’s descent into Communism/central control by funding those who fund him and his corrupt ilk….
And as long as they have their Dominion voting systems in place, with the “trusted build” that wipes the previous election’s history logs, and is so complex that vendor support is required for most non-technical County Clerks to manage the system, that it creates all sorts of security exploits that can be leveraged to tilt the vote towards Democrats, either via “adjudication” features, misaligned ballots that kick out and require “adjudication”, tabulation algorithms that weight the tabulation to favor Democrats, they have a broad variety of means at their disposal to tilt the election results in their favor….
Meanwhile, the California Republican Party (or “CAGOP” as they refer to themselves) is silent on this issue, and only bleats for funds, but DOES NOTHING to challenge the collusion and voting fraud that has characterized California voting for years….
I don’t disagree with what you’ve said, CD9, but we need to nevertheless VOTE in big numbers and help GET OUT THE VOTE in big numbers in November. It’s the only hope we have. As I recall it was discovered that one million registered Repubs sat out voting in the Recall. We’ll never know if that would have made a difference, but even though we know there are dirty tricks — of many kinds — we must vote anyway and encourage like-minded people to vote too.
There are two state offices I can think of that will be like our own “midterms” in California. State Controller and State Attorney General. These two offices, if the good guys are voted in, will likely make the biggest difference in the state for accountability of our “leadership” than any others. Maybe there are others I’ve overlooked.
It’s early yet, I know, but heads up to be sure to Vote for Lanhee Chen for Controller and for Nathan Hochman for Attorney General.
Oh, don’t get me wrong, Showandtell – I completely agree – we must turn out MASSIVELY on ELECTION DAY and VOTE IN PERSON, and not only that, we must also register to be poll-watchers and volunteers to observe the tallies because “2000 Mules” has shown conclusively how corrupt the entire voting process was allowed to become during 2020, because the Conservatives TRUSTED the progressive Communists…
Oh, I know, CD9, I’ve been following you for so long that I know where you stand on practically everything, and definitely on this. Guess I was using your comment as a springboard for mine, which has become a habit. Come to think of it, you were probably doing that too. 🙂 Thanks so much for reminding us about our needed volunteer involvement.
The latest addition to the corrupt CA voting system – universal mail-in ballots – will be sent next week.
Next week? I had no idea. This is not good, it’s WAY too soon. Gives the dirty trickers more time for their dirty tricks, seems to me. Sigh!
Yes Per Kevin Kiley. And he WOULD know.
Showandtell’s comment was priceless. Every last word of it was the truth!!! Unfortunately in our world today, money talks. We had well over the amount of signatures to recall Newsom. It’s sad that people can step in and throw money at a terrible situation and poof……. it’s all better now!!! But it isn’t, it’s gotten much much worse. Newsom: Worst governor ever!!!!!
Katy,
I am glad you wrote this article. It just validated what I was saying to some bozo on twitter about how Newsom bribed his way back into office. Biden gave Newsom an influx of federal cash to claim as a surplus, then he spent it on giving people $600 back, and helped people pay their back rent with tax money which is illegal. Newsom also did deals with the unions. I think he allowed one set of prison guards not to take the jab. The guy I was arguing with claimed it was because Larry Elder was a bad candidate. I knew that wasn’t the case=. Newsom labeled Elder as more Trump than Trump and told everyone he was an anti-masker and anti-vaxer, basically scared all the Democrats into letting him keep his job. As far as election fraud goes, according to the recall organizers, this was unverified but from a very reliable source that two of the counties physical vote tally was 75% to remove the governor, and 25% to keep, but those infernal voting machines counted it as 60% to keep and 40% to remove. When there is that big of a discrepancy it should automatically trigger an audit. But due to our SOS wanting to protect her boss, she did no such thing. Mike Lindell keeps saying there were 300,000 votes flipped from Yes to No. He has evidence on the recall election. There is no way on God’s green earth that this governor got the same percentage of votes in the recall that he did in the election. It just doesn’t happen unless the votes are counted that way.
Rather than going to all this trouble, why doesn’t the Democratic Party run state government just send the tax money directly to the unions, or, even more efficiently, directly into the campaign funds of the Democrats? It’s going there anyway.
Once again, we the people are paying to buy Democrats votes!