California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has refused to bail out Los Angeles, which is facing a $1 billion deficit, in his latest budget proposal, as the state itself faces a massive $12 billion deficit.
The Los Angeles Times reports:
Deeper in the budget proposal, no salvation was found for L.A. And at a news conference Wednesday, Newsom said flatly that he did not plan to provide cash to help dig the city out of its budget hole. The city is facing a $1-billion shortfall due to inflated personnel costs, higher than ever liability lawsuit payouts and below-expected revenues.
“The state’s not in a position to write a check,” Newsom said. “When you’re requesting things that have nothing to do with disaster recovery, that’s a nonstarter … I don’t need to highlight examples of requests from the city and county that were not related to disaster recovery and this state is not in a position, never have been, even in other times, to address those requests, particularly at this time.”
L.A. Mayor Karen Bass has made a public display of her visits to Sacramento, the state capital, to lobby for additional funding — apparently, to no avail. Funding cuts to the fire department have been widely cited as one reason, among many, that the Palisades Fire earlier this year was so devastating. (Los Angeles currently spends more on homeless services than it does on firefighting — though homeless people start many fires.)
San Francisco, where Newsom began his political career as mayor, is also facing a $1 billion deficit. All three entities — the two most prominent cities, and the state itself — received massive cash infusions under President Joe Biden, but slipped into deficit before he left office.
Newsom has blamed President Donald Trump for his state’s budget crisis, though last year’s deficit was initially even higher than the current one.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of Trump 2.0: The Most Dramatic ‘First 100 Days’ in Presidential History, available for Amazon Kindle. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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