Written by Amanda Angulo
In six days, Newsom will decide on the fate of over 400 bills, and this could affect the donors who spent millions to save him from the Sept. 14 recall.
Newsom’s spokesperson stated that in regards to his decision to sign the bills into law, “the governor’s decisions, always grounded in sound policy and good governance, are made in the best interest of the State of California.” Well, allowing students to fully go back to school without the forceful imposition to vaccinate, creating more jobs and getting people off welfare, and no longer throwing money at issues you can’t solve would reflect good governance. Newsom has failed to do just that.
Now, we are being fed the lie that the decisions he makes while signing away hundreds of bills proposed to him this year, are not without strings attached. Nearly 260 donors who contributed to his cause during the recall campaign, also gave Newsom $1 million for his 2022 re-election campaign.
For example, one of the biggest donors to Newsom has been Hollywood, but more specifically, Netflix’s founder, Reed Hastings. Early this year, executives in the show business donated over $3.9 million to the anti-recall campaign in May, while their lobbyists were working for expanded tax credits last year. Within that $3.9 million, there was a generous check of $3 million to Newsom from Hastings. In July, Newsom signed off on a legislation allowing for film and television studios to receive an additional $330 million in tax credits, from the state budget.
Of the $330 million, Netflix was awarded with $43 million for three of their productions. Newsom’s claim when he signed the bill into law was that the tax breaks will “fuel the California Comeback through thousands of good jobs right here in the Golden State.”
On Friday, Newsom signed an abundance of health care-related legislation. However, female legislators were left wondering why a predominately male group of legislators were standing behind Newsom during a press conference and why they were the ones to be writing the legislation.
Democrat Assemblymember Laura Friedman even stated that “there definitely are women legislators who are feeling unseen.” Yet, Newsom’s administration tried to save themselves again by claiming that three women who were invited to the events were unable to attend.
Photo from: Jeff Chiu Associated Press
