{"id":239254,"date":"2026-03-27T14:00:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T14:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/239254\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T14:00:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T14:00:21","slug":"newsom-may-spend-19m-sugarcoating-stalled-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/239254\/","title":{"rendered":"Newsom may spend $19M sugarcoating stalled economy"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Dan Walters<\/a>, CalMatters<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\""A\"
\n\t\t\t\tGov. Gavin Newsom holds a press conference about his revised 2025-26 budget in Sacramento on May 14, 2025. Photo by Fred Greaves for CalMatters<\/p>\n

This commentary was originally published by CalMatters<\/a>. Sign up<\/a> for their newsletters.<\/p>\n

California hasn\u2019t had a truly balanced state budget for four or maybe five years, and the current one continues to overspend its revenues.<\/a><\/p>\n

Nevertheless, Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to spend $19 million on a marketing campaign<\/a> to portray California as having a vibrant economy, to counter \u201cmyths driven by misinformation and political rhetoric.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCalifornia and its business climate have been falsely and maliciously maligned for years, and the state has a right to tell the true story \u2014 California is a great place to live, work, invest and visit,\u201d Newsom spokesperson Tara Gallegos told the Los Angeles Times. \u201cSetting the record straight will benefit every business, worker and resident of this state.\u201d<\/p>\n

The solicitation of contractors for the campaign quotes a passage from Newsom\u2019s State of the State speech: \u201cCalifornia has never been about perfection. It\u2019s about persistence. The courage of our convictions and the strength to embody them. That\u2019s the California Way.\u201d<\/p>\n

It appears to be a $19 million contribution from California taxpayers to Newsom\u2019s forthcoming campaign for the presidency. The state is a target of ceaseless social media and internet criticism, some of it far-fetched but, unfortunately, much of it is deserved, such as its seemingly intractable homelessness crisis. Being from California would be one of the hurdles Newsom faces if he seeks the presidency.<\/p>\n

The marketing campaign will attempt to put a positive spin on California\u2019s economy and business climate, echoing how Newsom typically responds when interviewers ask<\/a> about corporate migrations and loss of population to other states. He cites California\u2019s having the globe\u2019s 4th largest economy were it a nation.<\/p>\n

The hard fact, however, is that California\u2019s economy isn\u2019t doing so well these days, and it cannot be dismissed, as Newsom often does, as something dreamed up by political foes.<\/p>\n

Take, for instance, a report that the Legislature\u2019s budget analyst, Gabe Petek, issued in 2024, describing California\u2019s economy as \u201csluggish.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cCalifornia\u2019s economy has been in an extended slowdown for the better part of two years, characterized by a soft labor market and weak consumer spending,\u201d Petek said, adding, \u201cOutside of government and health care, the state has added no jobs in a year and a half. Similarly, the number of Californians who are unemployed is 25\u00a0percent higher than during the strong labor markets of 2019 and 2022. Consumer spending (measured by inflation-adjusted retail sales and taxable sales) has continued to decline throughout\u00a02024.\u201d<\/p>\n

This week, the California Center for Jobs & the Economy, an offshoot of the California Business Roundtable, issued a report that mirrors and builds on what Petek said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cCalifornia\u2019s economy in 2025 presents a troubling paradox,\u201d the detailed report declares. \u201cWhile the state continues to rank among the largest economies in the world, the underlying data reveals an economy that is no longer delivering broad-based growth, opportunity, or stability.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRather than expanding,\u201d the report continues, \u201cCalifornia\u2019s economy is increasingly defined by stagnation in job creation, erosion in its private sector base, and mounting structural challenges tied to affordability and competitiveness. Many of the state\u2019s headline strengths \u2014 particularly in technology \u2014 are masking deeper weaknesses across the broader economy. The data show an economy that has largely stalled since the pandemic recovery, with employment barely returning to pre-2020 levels, private sector job losses accelerating, and consumer activity weakening in real terms.\u201d<\/p>\n

Newsom obviously wants to bury these sobering facts, but doing so undercuts his duty \u2014 as governor for another nine months \u2014 to be straight with Californians, not just conjure up taxpayer-financed propaganda.<\/p>\n

He\u2019ll have plenty of time to spin fables after he\u2019s out of office and on the presidential campaign trail.<\/p>\n

This article was originally published on CalMatters<\/a> and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives<\/a> license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Dan Walters, CalMatters Gov. Gavin Newsom holds a press conference about his revised 2025-26 budget in Sacramento…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239255,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[387,7,9,8,964,383,457,13895],"class_list":{"0":"post-239254","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-california-headlines","11":"tag-california-news","12":"tag-commentary","13":"tag-economy","14":"tag-gavin-newsom","15":"tag-unemployment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239254\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}