Budgetmania! + Newsom hasn’t read single-payer bill + California unemployment holding steady
Good morning and welcome to the A.M. Alert!
ENTER THE BUDGET
Budgetmania? Budgetpalooza? Whatever you want to call it, Monday saw a clock-crunching three-hour-long press conference by California Gov. Gavin Newsom as he unveiled his 2022-23 budget.
The seemingly endless press conference still just scratched the surface of what was included in the 400-page (400!?) budget summary Newsom’s office released in conjunction with the conference.
Monday was a full court press for The Sac Bee, so be sure to check out Sophia Bollag’s budget overview, Dale Kasler’s look at Newsom’s proposed climate spending, Nadia Lopez’s story about Newsom’s plan to provide health care access to all Californians and my own roundup of quotes from top state lawmakers about the budget.
SINGLE PAYER WHO?
Via Lara Korte...
During a marathon budget presentation on Monday, Gov. Gavin Newsom wouldn’t say whether he supports Assembly Democrats’ plan to enact single-payer healthcare in California.
In fact, he hasn’t read the legislation at all, he said.
“I haven’t had the privilege or opportunity to learn anything about the details, except what was shared in an article that was, a very fair, balanced article, by (LA Times’) John Myers,” he said. “ Beyond that, I don’t know what they’re proposing.”
“No one has presented it to me.”
Single-payer healthcare would raise taxes significantly — an unpopular sell during an election year. It would make sense that the governor wants to deflect such conversations during a discussion on his budget proposal.
But Newsom has been one of the most vocal Californians supporting single-payer healthcare. He campaigned on single-payer in his gubernatorial campaign in 2018 and backed Senate Bill 562 the year before, which would have created a single-payer system.
But on Monday Newsom insisted he had no idea what Democrats proposed last week, and focused instead on his proposal for universal healthcare, which would provide healthcare to all Californians age 26 to 49, regardless of immigration status.
He noted that he created a commission to study the financing of such a system, and that their report is due in two months. Stay tuned.
CALIFORNIA UNEMPLOYMENT IS UNAFFECTED BY OMICRON SURGE, SO FAR
Via David Lightman...
The omicron variant’s California surge has not seriously affected the state’s unemployment situation so far.
“Omicron has not yet brought layoffs. With the tight labor market, employers are holding on to workers,” said Michael Bernick, an employment attorney with Duane Morris LLP and former director of the Employment Development Department.
The U.S. Labor Department reported Thursday that new California claims for the week ending January 1 totaled 50,934.
While that was up slightly from the previous week, “today’s new claims do not show omicron yet seriously disrupting payroll employment levels,” Bernick said.
The state had the nation’s highest unemployment rate in November, 6.9%, and its percentage of claims remains proportionately high.
Last week, the new claims were about 16% of the national total, down somewhat from previous weeks. The state has about 11.7% of the nation’s civilian workforce.
State unemployment numbers for December will be released later this month.
At that time, Bernick said, “We’re likely to see a slowing of the pace of job gains in California from the pace that we saw in 2021, as omicron slows the already-slow return to work in California.”
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I’m not the mayor of California.”
- Gov. Gavin Newsom, responding to a question about the state’s progress in fighting homelessness during Monday’s budget press conference.
Best of the Bee:
Two influential and powerful health care labor unions condemned California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday for putting corporate interests ahead of public health after state regulators announced that hospitals and other institutions can compel asymptomatic workers to return to work even if they tested positive for COVID-19 or were exposed to it, via Cathie Anderson.
California health officials expect to reach a record-high number of COVID-19 hospitalizations early next month, Gov. Gavin Newsom said, raising concerns about the strain on hospitals and health care workers, via Lara Korte.
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s management of the COVID-19 crisis was a big reason he easily won last year’s recall effort. But political times have changed, the path to November success has become unpredictable, and incumbents – mostly Democrats – are at increasing risk of being victims of voter anger, via David Lightman.