Desperate times call for desperate measures & fiscal austerity/priorities.

(1) Additional public health/MediCal expenditures
= important
(2) Environmental spending = less important (at this time)
(3) Reduce prison costs by early release of non-violent inmates
(4) Put homelessness budget on hold
(5) Encourage public school districts to generate more resources with bond measures (i.e. Palo Alto parents can well afford it...other cities not so much). State educational funds should go to the poorer districts
(6) Tax developers & real estate agents to a greater extent
(7) Increase business taxes on multi-billion $ companies

Well Mr Newsom now you get to clean-up the mess you made through your draconian measures to close the economy many of which are still in place even with a flattening of the curve and spare hospital capacity. Good luck! Glad my kids are out of k-12 , I feel sorry for folks.

Not one dime in cuts until defined benefit pensions are eliminated for public sector employees.

I love this quote in the article

"My optimism is conditioned on this — more federal support. We're seeing economic numbers, unemployment numbers, more acute than anything we've seen in modern times," he said. "We need the federal government to recognize this. We really need the federal government to do more."

Ahhh , well Governor time for you to step up and OWN the consequences of the measures YOU imposed on businesses in California.

[Portion removed.]
How about: discontinue “services” to illegal aliens.
The hazy expenditures “for the homeless” have been similarly opaque and ineffective and susceptible to fraud.
Combine numerous duplicative school districts in this state, reduce their bureaucracy, sell off duplicative facilities! Really, this IS the time, finally, for this sensible action! Is there the political will?
Keep operations at DMV as current head is responsible and managing that well.
Examine and audit other departments for suitable reductions.
Hiring freeze state of CA for six months.
Rolling furloughs for various other state services, off one week per month unpaid.

The governator wants to open up California, slowly. But when Elon Musk tries to do just that with one of the largest manufacturing plants in the Bay Area, the county won't let him.

Alameda County must have more money hidden somewhere if they don't need to let manufacturing start.

The over generous employee pensions are unsustainable and must be reformed. It is unethical for taxpayers to pay higher taxes for these pensions that bankrupt cities.

Ideally the state goes bankrupt and can reduce its pension payouts.
Maybe the CCP virus is a blessing in disguise.

Got all the story,

Quite considerate of you that you suggest the poor and minorities go to work in dangerous conditions, causing the virus to surge again, while you protect yourself in seclusion in Palo Alto. Fortunately, most Palo Altans have a better understanding of pandemics and Newsom is following the advice of top-notch epidemiologists and not the average Palo Alto Online commenter.

Repeal all of Prop 13 - commercial and residential - with a 3 year ramp-up of fair value property assessments. This will bring billions of dollars of tax money back to Californians and equalize neighbors so that they all contribute to local services. Older residents can stay in their homes if they want since there are now ways for them to access the equity in their houses. This was a good intentioned, but disastrous tax bill that needs to change for the good of the state.

Georgia seems to be doing just fine.

[Portion removed.]

By now lockdowns are doing FAR more damage than the virus, how is this even acceptable? Of course with the blind compliance of the media-addled masses who are now isolated and only getting a view of reality through their TV screens flashing "death" numbers at them.

Web Link

Newsom is acting with presidential aspirations in mind and nothing else. Every time he gets in front of the camera, every decision he makes, is made not for scientific wisdom, but how it will look when he runs a presidential campaign, probably 2024.

His aspirations have been evident for many years. This has in fact helped his plan move forward. Can you see how all these decisions will look on campaign trail "When I was governor of California during the pandemic I..." and all the possible sound bites.

@Moderator who just edited my post.
There was literally NOTHING wrong with my post you have NO right to edit out parts of my post. PAO moderator sickening, impulsive TDS-influenced behavior. You traffic in censorchip, Bill Johnson. Just sickening!

@ Resident

You just noticed this now? This has been going on for many years, if you do not align with the editors political beliefs you get censored.

Budget problems in California? How about the $1.9 billion Newsom will spend in the next 9-months on high speed rail to nowhere? Hard to take anything Newsom says seriously when he keeps throwing good money after bad. He talked about stopping HSR but reversed course when his big campaign contributors pressured him to keep spending.

> "There was literally NOTHING wrong with my post you have NO right to edit out parts of my post. PAO moderator sickening, impulsive TDS-influenced behavior. You traffic in censorship, Bill Johnson. Just sickening!"

>> "You just noticed this now? This has been going on for many years, if you do not align with the editors political beliefs you get censored."


^^^^ As someone who has also been censored (aka post deleted/removed on various occasions/topics) it should be noted that the moderator & sponsor of the forum have the full right to do so as it is their website and we are all guest readers and/or contributors of varying opinions.

First amendment rights do not apply to the PA Online Town Square...it is the same with the editorial section of a newspaper as the department editor has the FULL right to either accept or reject the various opinion pieces submitted for publication.

If anything, I have noticed that certain right-wing opinions get removed along with various non-PC and off-topic commentaries.

While it may seem extreme & uncalled for at times, forum censorship is no different than what goes on at Fox News or CNN and we should keep in mind that like Fox News & CNN...the PA Town Square is an editorial platform subject to the vison & direction of the hosts(s).

The answer will be, as it always is in California ... "temporary" retroactive tax increases (if we can't get away with taxes, just call them fees instead). Here the definition of temporary means forever. This will pay to keep the popular services people care about alive, while money that could be used to fund those same services is shuffled to unpopular expenses that relatively few people would object to reining in.

"Officials from Los Angeles, San Francisco and Stockton wasted no time campaigning for a statewide tax increase."

F no !!! We are still paying the last "temporary" income tax increase ... for years when the state was running huge budget surplus and Sacramento was creatively finding ways to spend big.

Good luck with your fiscal problems. Those of us with successful businesses are starting the process of relocating out of state. Keep the handouts to the illegals and drug addicts coming, you can just cut more from schools and fire departments!

Posted by DTNResident, a resident of Downtown North

>> Good luck with your fiscal problems. Those of us with successful businesses are starting the process of relocating out of state.

The nice thing about North Dakota is that there aren't any homeless people living under bridges. Enjoy your new home.

Oh, just one more thing. If you are in such a hurry to get out of California, why are you wasting your precious time posting here?

One of the differences between the private sector and government, is that the private sector is disciplined by a limited budget which has serious consequences. Creative destruction, competition, market discipline, all tend to keep the private sector in line. Incapable employees are removed or put in lesser jobs, more capable employees are given more authority. Everyone is subject to the discipline of performance, and everyone can be fired.

In the public sector, none of this is true. You cannot reasonably be fired, there is no market discipline for anything. The only measure is, can you grow your part of government to gain more power or compensation.

The end result is too much government and too little performance.

Though we need government, and we need good government, we cannot afford an unlimited amount of government. Time to consider some belt tightening in the public sector to reflect that we suffer in the private sector.

Posted by Joseph E. Davis, a resident of Woodside

>> Not one dime in cuts until defined benefit pensions are eliminated for public sector employees.

I would be perfectly OK with it if all pensions are 100% forward-funded. I'm not OK with eliminating defined-benefit pensions and completely replacing them with 401k type plans. Defined-benefit pensions exist because people don't know how long they will live. One person might die before reaching retirement, another might live to age 95. It is a bad idea for everyone to save/invest enough so that their 401k can live "forever".

This thread has given me hope. It appears people are finally starting to wake up. As much as I hate the continued SIP and firmly believe we are at a point to slowly, safely and smartly start opening back up I almost hope that Newsome continues his draconian measure.

I saw this on another feed today, and it really hit home. Someone had asked why the federal government hasn’t stepped in yet to stop these ridiculous overreaches by local governments. And the responder said “can you imagine if the federal government stepped in right now. It would be a disaster for Trump. He has to allow these fools to dig their own grave. He has to allow the American people, including those that don’t support him, to see what the democrats are doing. They are destroying our country and he has to allow them to hang themselves because those that don’t believe Trump will not believe him, they will only believe it if they see it first hand. Trump is a smart man, he’s a chess player not a checkers player.”

Totally agree. Until people start feeling the ill effects of their leadership they won’t change. Unfortunately we are such a fortunate, wealthy society in our bubble most people here will never feel the ill effects.

[Post removed.]

You know who's fault it is right? All of those non-essential businesses. If only they had planned ahead, the would have been essential and the state would be able to keep sucking money from them. So selfish...

Can’t wait till we can get that fool out of the White House. All he does is divide the country. He enjoys this chaos as do the trump supporters.