Dems offer a ‘no-cuts budget’ + Bogus coronavirus market + Tell your COVID-19 story
Good morning! Another weekend done! Here’s a look at what you need to know today.
READ THE MASK
Last week, powerful California lawmakers in the Capitol wore masks with a message: “Invest. Don’t cut.”
The masks, provided by SEIU, underscored their preferences for how they want to navigate the unprecedented situation brought on by the coronavirus outbreak, which has forced the Legislature to implement new safety protocols and rethink the budget.
Even with an estimated a $54 billion budget deficit looming, Democrats who control the California Legislature plan to pass a budget Monday that attempts to avoid slashing funds for education and health care by delaying cuts in hope of future economic relief.
“We’re proposing essentially a no-cuts budget. That’s what we’re going to be passing Monday,” said Assemblyman Rob Bonta, D-Alameda.
It’s a strategy they’ve pursued in the weeks since Gov. Gavin Newsom laid out a plan with roughly $14 billion in cuts that would be triggered if Congress does not send states more financial assistance. In response, Democratic lawmakers called Newsom’s proposed cuts “draconian” and laid out what they described as a more “empathetic” approach.
Democrats don’t want to cut too deep, yet. Newsom, who made cuts in the last recession as mayor of San Francisco, would move faster in trimming spending. Some, including Bonta, say they are looking for ways to raise revenue.
Republicans don’t have much leverage, but they’re ready to cut.
“If we don’t make those choices now, we’re just going to make choices more difficult down the road,” said Assemblyman Jay Obernolte, R-Big Bear Lake. “Every dollar in cuts that we defer is a cut that’s going to cost us more than a dollar to make in future years.”
Read more in Sophia Bollag’s story today. And we’ll be watching the votes with you.
HUCKSTERS ABOUND IN CORONAVIRUS MARKETPLACE
Via Jason Pohl and Ryan Sabalow...
In early April, Gov. Newsom launched a website where people and companies could help California gear up for the coronavirus pandemic.
The portal was designed as a marketplace for middlemen, manufacturers and business giants to pitch deals and donations with the state, which was scrambling to obtain medical supplies to fight COVID-19.
For some, the site was a chance to clear out their closets.
Someone in Los Angeles found seven masks while cleaning out an apartment and asked to donate them. A Santa Rosa resident offered an ice machine, an orthopedic boot and two N95 masks that were leftover from the 2017 wildfires.
Along with these small gestures, the portal soon became cluttered with hundreds of questionable offers and a dizzying array of sales pitches, a Sacramento Bee review of more than 6,000 submissions found. Hucksters looked to cash-in on the chaos, conspiracy theorists shared outlandish plans to quell the virus’s spread, and residents vented their frustrations about people not wearing masks.
Multiple groups floated pseudoscience as a substitute for vaccines. Someone suggested water mixed with oil from oregano could ensure pneumonia “will never form in the lungs.”
One person wanted crop dusters to rain antiseptics on streets and populated areas to slow the spread of the virus.
The chaotic marketplace offers a window into the Newsom administration’s frantic efforts to make sure California has enough equipment to handle a surge of COVID-19 cases in the state’s hospitals.
On the website, dozens of people said they could produce millions of masks and face shields, thousands of ventilators and body bags. Companies advertised new mask-cleaning technology. Hotels lined up to be part of Project Roomkey, Newsom’s project to subsidize them into becoming shelters for the homeless and COVID-19 patients.
Nick Vyas, executive director of the Marshall Center for Global Supply Chain Management at USC, at first laughed at some of the would-be sellers a Sacramento Bee reporter described to him.
He then called the state’s system appallingly “backward” and said it allowed “price gouging, illegitimate products, false promises and extreme confusion that added to the crisis at hand and really spun out of control.”
“In 2020 in one of the most powerful countries and one of the most powerful states, our approach is really going back to the 18th century,” he said. “I think this is absolutely not how we should be managing a future pandemic or a catastrophic event of this magnitude with this level of intelligence.”
SHARE YOUR COVID-19 STORY
You’ve been bottled up for three months because of the coronavirus. Surely you’ve got a story or two to share of your experience. Well now’s your chance!
The California State Library has launched a new project, titled “California COVID Diaries,” and all Californians are being encouraged to submit to it.
The State Library is looking for typed or hand-written journals, letters, email narratives and blog posts, as well as photos, videos, audio recordings, written or recorded interviews with family or friends, artwork and drawings and “other storytelling methods,” according to a statement.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted every part of our lives — from how we work and educate our children to how we shop for groceries,” said First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom in a statement. “Even in this time of crisis, we’ve seen countless acts of bravery and kindness from Californians across the state. Sharing these stories through ‘California COVID Diaries’ will help create a sense of shared history, bringing communities together and building our relience in a time of great need.”
Submissions can take any format, so long as they are personal documentation, observation or reflection on the impact of COVID-19. For more information, you can visit the project’s website or email coviddiaries@library.ca.gov.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“53 years ago interracial marriage was illegal in 16 states. Only 53 years since the Supreme Court ended that ban. Thanks to Mildred and Richard Loving for pursuing their case to the top, paving the way for so many families, including mine. #LovingDay”
- Assemblywoman Sydney Kamlager, via Twitter.
Best of the Bee:
A right to housing and a $2 billion program: What’s in California Democrats’ homeless plan, via Hannah Wiley
Advocates for disabled California prison inmates are asking the state to require guards to wear body cameras, citing dozens of new court declarations describing alleged abuses that they should compel the corrections department to carry out policy changes, via Matt Kristoffersen.
The University of California at Berkeley has nearly 500,000 Native American artifacts and remains in its possession, yet it has returned just a fifth of that to tribes, the result of inadequate policies and oversight, according to a state audit released Thursday, via Andrew Sheeler.