SACRAMENTO – Governor Newsom’s ‘one-man rule’ is destroying California. Tonight, the Governor delivered his third State-of-the-State address during primetime. It was light on policies, laden with accolades and missing any reference to the failure of government leadership stemming from his statewide stay-at-home order a year ago.
Since then, more than 19,000 businesses have shuttered, many others continue to teeter on the edge, out-of-work Californians still wait for their unemployment checks while the state is grappling with up to $30 billion in unemployment fraud, and most students have missed a valuable year of in-person instruction.
“Under Governor Newsom, California is no longer the Golden State, but it is in a state of disrepair. He has no plan on how to get our kids back in school fulltime. He has no plan on how to improve EDD and he has no plan on how to get people vaccinated. He talked about number of vaccinations but the reality is we are 49th out of 50 states in vaccination rates. We are doing something wrong but he has no plan to fix it. After shutting down California for almost a year, Californians deserved better. We deserved a concrete roadmap from him tonight on how he plans to right the ship. That didn’t happen”. – Senate Republican Leader Scott Wilk (R-Santa Clarita).
“The speech appropriately recognized those who have lost their lives and the hard work of our health care professionals and frontline workers during the pandemic. COVID-19 has shown the resolve of Californians during these challenging times. Last week, with great fanfare, the Governor signed legislation that encourages schools to reopen. Many portrayed that legislation as a measure that would get our kids back to school. Sadly, most schools remain closed and many are unlikely to re-open for classroom instruction this school year. The celebratory press conference on the schools bill has not been matched with actions to actually get our kids back to school. In fact, the state this week denied the San Dieguito Union High and Carlsbad Unified School Districts in my region the chance to reopen their middle and high schools for in-person instruction, even though the districts’ applications to re-open had received the county public health officer’s approval. The Governor and his Administration must listen to pediatricians and parents who want our schools to safely reopen now.” - Senator Patricia Bates (R-Laguna Niguel).
“While no Governor can adequately prepare for this type of event, there were clear and preventable inadequacies that took place that have tremendously hurt the people of California. Californians deserve better.” - Senator Andreas Borgeas (R-Fresno)
Senator Shannon Grove(R-Bakersfield): “While I appreciate the governor’s optimism about the people of California, his speech was nothing short of an alternative reality on the state of our state. The truth is, under his one-man rule, Californians have suffered immensely, businesses have closed, families have fled, nursing home residents have died, church services were banned, and children continue to suffer. The governor failed to point out how his policies are taking nearly a million acres of the world’s richest farmland out of production, shuttering entire industries, and leaving workers without a way to put food on the table. Californians deserve better and I continue to call on the governor to adopt commonsense solutions that address these harsh realities.”
Senator Brian Dahle (R-Bieber) reacted to Governor Newsom’s State of the State Address, stating: “We have endured over a year of chaotic policies implemented through Executive Order, bypassing the Legislature that has thrown our residents and business community into confusion and despair. Tens of thousands of businesses have shut down, some of them forever, while workers are forced to the unemployment line that has failed to pay-out benefits to those in need, but issued billions of dollars to prisoners and others fraudulently working the system. I believe in the potential of California to return to a vibrant and welcoming state. I hope that it’s not a dream that has passed us by.”
“Governor Newsom can try to rewrite the history of the last, lost year,” stated Senator Brian Jones (R-Santee). “But the bottom line is he panicked, shut everything down, and now our job losses, small business closures, school closures and COVID rates are higher than states that didn’t shutdown. Newsom is wealthy enough to be immune from the shutdown, but most other Californians are not so lucky. Is it any wonder struggling Californians are signing recall petitions?”
Senator Jim Nielsen (R-Tehama) said, “Minutes before the Governor’s speech, EDD computers crashed. Yet, another example of California’s failure to get it right. How many Californians are adversely affected by this catastrophe? Unemployment has affected millions this past year. Not a word about fixing EDD in his speech. It is disappointing the Governor did not address EDD’s disaster. California taxpayers deserve to hear about his plans to implement permanent fixes so real Californians can receive unemployment benefits, not international crime rings and prisoners.”
“It has been nearly a year since Governor Gavin Newsom shut down our economy and although today’s State of the State address described some progress, it also showed that there is still a lot of work to be done. There are six million children that have lost a complete academic school year, tens and thousands of businesses have shut down permanently, and over a million unemployment claims remain backlogged. My office is working on getting the necessary funding to schools so they can promptly reopen safely, offer loans and grants to help our struggling businesses, and clean up California’s unemployment department by updating their computer systems and removing obstacles to get deserving Californians the help they need quickly.”
– Senator Rosicilie Ochoa Bogh (R-Yucaipa).