California Democrats have quietly scrapped Gov. Gavin Newsom’s controversial $20 million plan to honor the state’s living former governors from the budget – abandoning a proposal that sparked rare bipartisan backlash and ridicule of the taxpayer-funded vanity project.
The so-called “Governors’ Legacies” fund was first revealed by The Post as being part of Newsom’s May budget revision would have authorized taxpayer funds to be spent on projects recognizing former governors’ public service and policy achievements.
But the funding request vanished from a tentative budget agreement shaped and approved this week by Democratic legislators.
The governor’s office declined comment Thursday on the legacy proposal being removed, deferring comment to the Department of Finance.
State Sen. Tony Strickland, a Republican from Huntington Beach, told The Post that Newsom’s proposal was “laughable.”
“A legacy fund is just totally tone deaf in terms of the affordability crisis and what’s going on here in California. He probably saw that it was totally tone deaf, and probably one of his advisors said, ‘Is that smart to move forward on? You’re going to actually hurt yourself.’”
It’s unclear if the scrapped idea is a rebuke of retreat for Newsom in the final months of his administration, which has continued to commit to record spending while structural budget deficits loom in the near future.
Newsom’s proposal generated immediate backlash because it could have eventually funded tributes to Newsom himself after he leaves office in January, even though the administration insisted no money would be spent honoring the current governor.
“This guy has a lot of vanity projects,” said Rep. James Gallagher, who recently won a special election to move on to Congress after representing Yuba County in the state Assembly.
“He wants to memorialize himself, he wanted to do a California advertising campaign in anticipation of his presidential campaign. It’s good this thing was dropped. We need to stop glorifying governors and get back to governing the state.”
Democratic Sen. Caroline Menjivar called the proposal “absurd,” saying lawmakers should prioritize health care and other pressing needs over honoring former governors.
“I do not care to recognize the legacy of governors past or present,” Menjivar said during a hearing. “I care about seniors having health insurance and seniors with disabilities having health insurance.”
Newsom’s office said the fund was intended to recognize the “public policy milestones and important, substantial contributions” of California’s living former governors from both parties.
Those former governors include Pete Wilson, Gray Davis, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jerry Brown.
However, lawmakers from both parties questioned the wisdom of creating a new legacy fund.
State Sen. Christopher Cabaldon, a Democrat who previously served under multiple California governors, said last month that lawmakers were being asked to approve millions of dollars without sufficient details, oversight or clear objectives.
“There’s really nothing here,” Cabaldon said during a budget hearing. “There’s no proposal here to be responsive to.”
Despite stronger-than-expected tax revenues, the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) warned lawmakers against additional discretionary spending due to the structural deficits.
Newsom ignored that advice, and it seems lawmakers may have overruled him.
“Given the structural deficit, we have an overarching recommendation that the Legislature should reject any increase in discretionary spending as part of their budget package,” Nick Schroeder, principal fiscal and policy analyst for the LAO, told The Post.
“Not including this proposal would be consistent with that recommendation.”
The governor is no stranger to public tributes. Months before he was elected governor in 2018, a privately funded bronze bust commemorating his tenure as San Francisco mayor was installed at City Hall. It was later reported that businesses with ties to Newsom helped fund the bust.
Newsom’s legacy fund may be dead but the budget retained a $33,000 expenditure for the governor’s portrait.
