Categories:
Incentives
Public Choice Theory
Newsom Finally Recognizes Tradeoffs
Governor Newsom of California announced yesterday that he is relaxing the statewide lockdown sooner than he had said he would.
What gives? I think Newsom is finally recognizing tradeoffs. He started the fiscal year with an expected budget surplus. He now expects a state government deficit of $54.3 billion. He had wanted a bailout from his Democratic California partner Nancy Pelosi. Her $3.2 trillion bailout passed in the House by a narrow 208-199 vote but is probably dead on arrival in the Republican-controlled Senate.
My guess is that he understands that he’s not getting a big bailout. So he can’t shift the cost onto the shoulders of federal taxpayers.
HT2 Steven Greenhut
READER COMMENTS
Michael Klein
May 20 2020 at 3:50pm
Agreed. However, I would add that he followed the “science and the data”. That science and data was telling him that he would have to cut salaries and pensions of virtually all state workers and that would lead to his demise at re-election time. The reversal was based on his calculus of his political survival, not the “safety of the people” line he used frequently to justify his trampling of California’s rights and liberties.
David Seltzer
May 20 2020 at 4:39pm
Civil disobedience has taken place with people defying state mandated lock-down orders. The MSRP of three trillion taxpayer dollars might also have initiated a taxpayer strike. Shay’s Rebellion civilly executed.
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