Newsom’s Budget Revisal Proposes 10,000 Vacant State Jobs Being Cut, Cuts To 260 State Programs
California still has a massive deficit whether you look at Newsom’s lowball numbers or the state projections
By Evan Symon, May 11, 2024 7:45 am
During his May revised 2024-2025 state budget proposal announcement on Friday, Governor Gavin Newsom proposed cutting around 10,000 vacant state jobs, as well as spending to 260 state programs.
Back in January, Governor Newsom released his first 2024-2025 state budget proposal. In it, Newsom had the budget set at $291.5 billion with a$37.9 billion deficit attached after previous spending reductions were added in.
The $27.6 billion detailed in his proposal, plus $17.3 billion in proactive cuts recently agreed upon between the administration and the state Legislature, amount to a total of $44.9 billion total deficit. To help pay for it he had delayed spending, more borrowing, and tapping into the rainy day fund to make it all work. But no where there was any mention of job losses or big time cuts spread across hundreds of agencies.
But reality quickly kicked in, during the months that followed. The Legislative Analyst’s Office tacked the real state deficit initially at $58 billion. It soon climbed up to $68 billion, and by late February it was $73 billion. Only a few years before, the state had a $31 billion surplus. But numerous factors, including a weakening economy, a massive loss of the state population, businesses moving out of state, delayed tax changes, and other post-COVID changes sent California on a downward spiral.
Newsom’s office and other state leaders attempted to challenge the LAO’s findings, but the non-partisan analyst’s office numbers held. The LAO figure served as the true figure on how much the state was behind and just how drastically the state needed to change. This led to Newsom’s revised budget announcement on Friday. With Newsom’s announced deficit now higher than his estimate in January, and the LAO not yet saying how much higher the actual deficit is now based on Newsom’s slightly reduced $288.1 billion budget, massive cuts were in mind.
Newsom proposes to cut 10,000 vacant state jobs
Perhaps none were so sweeping as Newsom proposing to cut around 10,000 vacant state jobs and cutting spending to 260 state programs. Newsom didn’t linger on these major changes however, moving on to other key areas like climate change and crime, noting that “Even when revenues were booming, we were preparing for possible downturns by investing in reserves and paying down debts – that’s put us in a position to close budget gaps while protecting core services that Californians depend on. Without raising taxes on Californians, we’re delivering a balanced budget over two years that continues the progress we’ve fought so hard to achieve, from getting folks off the streets to addressing the climate crisis to keeping our communities safe.”
However, employment experts said that should the Legislature agree to the cuts, the 10,000 vacant jobs being cut would not be as dramatic as the Governor and his advisors made it seem.
“State-level job cuts in California is like whack-a-mole. You hit one down and somehow two pop back up,” explained job placement consultant Harriet Colon to the Globe on Friday. “That 10,000 seems like a lot, and it is. That’s salary, benefits, retirement. It does put a small dent in the deficit. But here’s the thing: new state jobs always pop up after cuts. Sometimes they are relisted shortly afterwards as a new position and not based on the cut one. New programs go hire people, so jobs come back that way. Emergency hiring comes into place sometimes thanks to the cuts gutting an area that suddenly need those people back.
“You can cut that rose bush down to the stems, but it is just going to bloom again. He also mentioned cuts in 260 state programs. That’s noble, but many more are getting funding boosts new. Many new programs are coming on-line. I mean, money is still being thrown at climate initiatives, and Newsom is fixing his weak points by boosting funding in areas like crime prevention too.
“10,000 jobs just cut out is a lot. But each year we see so many state jobs come up for people to help place. It comes back fast. If he wanted to truly cut back, he would need to have hard hiring limits across the board. A state job cap. Other states and countries do this when they are in a budget fix. But California won’t even touch that, and look, they still have a massive deficit whether you look at Newsom’s lowball numbers or the state projections.”
More on Newsom’s budget revisal is to come out soon, as the June 15th pass date is just over a month away.
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This is worse than it seems. California, in my experience, doesn’t have serious revenue issues until the stock market takes a big turn down. We’re having these issues while the stock market is still doing reasonably well. If we see a big drop in the market any time soon, look out. There’s no way the mental giants running Sacramento will be able to deal with the problem.
Agreed! The State has a massive spending problem and it’s going to hit hard when the next stock market crash comes. There are simple solutions to the States current problems, but it requires the dismantling of the administrative class which is something that Newsom and establishment cannot do. Over the decades the State has hoarded all of the power/money in a centralized structure. That structure is now overgrown and needs to be dismantled. School funding and the money that the State collects to fund it needs to be sent back to local counties. The state should abolish the Department of Education as an Agency. The Climate Agencies and Departments should be abolished. This would have a big impact on the state budget and return money back to residents. A major byproduct of this action would be a dramatic decrease in the cost of all energy. There are at least 250 more programs that can be cut that provide minimal services to us the taxpayers. When you hear the administrative class crying about the end of the world as we know it without their protection and benevolence you know that we are onto something worth exploring
How about cutting 10,000 actual state jobs? Count Dracula Newsom and the criminal Democrat mafia that controls the state will never cut back on wasteful spending such as the DEI programs, climate change hoax programs or pet projects like that train to nowhere because there is so much grift to be made for them and their cronies?
If they are not going to take the deficit seriously then you know a whole lot of pain is coming our way!
Not only is it excessive spending but the sheer waste and not be held accountable for millions they cannot account for!!
More fees and taxes on the horizon.
Meanwhile, more freebies for the illegals and less local services for residents.
Newsom needs to just retire to Cabo or Cuba to live out the rest of his miserable existence and leave the good people of this state and nation alone!
Such a complete joke and so insulting to those who have half a brain!
Newsom for presidente
Of Mexico, si!!!