Newsom

As California Governor Newsom looks toward the presidency, it behooves everyone to take a look at what could be expected. A good place to start is San Francisco where Newsom used to be the mayor. Over the past 20 years the budget for San Fran has increased from $3.5 billion to $14.5 billion. This is mostly from two areas. First is the number of employees has increased from 29,500 in 2013 to 36,600 in 2023 while the city has lost about 50,000 in population. Second is the use of non profits to carry out city business. In the past non profits were groups like Catholic Charities but today they are non profit but more like businesses. The city now has 600 non profits conducting the cities business. These entities present their cost of operation to the department manager of the function and they are approved by this manage who is not able to properly audit because of the lack of people and in particular trained people. Those who understand the system realize that each non profit contributes campaign contribution to each manager and thus the circle is complete. This kind of system is ripe for corruption. The state, despite having the highest income tax rate in the country, is facing a $68 billion dollar deficit. This is the experience that Newsom will bring with him on his journey to the White House.