Posts tagged Gavin Newsom
Opinion Shameful: Republicans help SEIU defy Gavin Newsom’s return to work order
September 1, 2026 // Enter Assembly Bill 1729. Authored by Democratic Assemblyman Alex Lee and coauthored by Republican Assemblyman Josh Hoover, the bill throws a statutory obstacle in Newsom’s way. Existing law already requires agencies to maintain telework plans where teleworking is “both practical and beneficial.”
Newsom Celebrates a Higher Minimum Wage as California Jobs Struggle
August 27, 2026 // Escalating minimum wages can also push employers to scuttle plans to expand their businesses because they cannot afford inflated payrolls. In extreme cases, they shut down their companies. Who knows, some might even leave, relocating in states that aren’t hostile to businesses. And that, we remind the governor, is a “different path” indeed.
Opinion: Gavin Newsom’s mind-boggling record of giveaways to unions
August 25, 2026 // Richer government contracts and expanded public employee benefits don’t come from nowhere. They land on taxpayers — the same taxpayers already staring down the nation’s highest gas prices, some of the steepest home insurance increases in the country and a cost of living that keeps pushing people out of the state entirely.
Opinion: John Moorlach: AB 1383 is a costly pension mistake in the making
August 21, 2026 // Assembly Bill 1383, introduced by Assemblymember Tina McKinnor, D-Inglewood, would increase pension benefits for public safety employees — allowing earlier retirement with higher payouts — while reducing the contributions those employees are required to make. The bill provides no new funding to cover these expanded obligations, which would further destabilize the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) and local government budgets.
Uber drivers won a 12-year fight to unionize. Robots have already taken the wheel
August 19, 2026 // It’s a real victory for their cause, but in the years since drivers began organizing, the ride-hail industry has entered a new era. Robotaxis, once a bug-faced curiosity(opens in new tab), are shaping up to be an existential threat to human rideshare drivers. Experts disagree on the pace and scale of the labor transition, and policymakers are crafting regulations that may bear down on the autonomous vehicle industry. However, there are some warning signs in early-adopter cities. In San Francisco, Uber saw utilization and hourly earnings decline in 2025, it says.
California’s ‘Fair Share’ proposal could lead to unfair hiring, advocates warn
August 14, 2026 // However, opponents argue individuals rely on public health insurance for many reasons, and tying a company’s costs to those workers could put them at a disadvantage. “We don’t want to incentivize employers to change their business practices to either not hire people who are on Medicaid or discourage people from enrolling in Medicaid once they’re hired,” said Jennifer Spiegel, a policy analyst with New Jersey Policy Perspective. Read more at: https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article316832195.html#storylink=cpy
Dr. Oz points to powerful California unions as ‘biggest beneficiaries’ in Medicaid fraud scheme
August 10, 2026 // The CMS Administrator claims that there is no incentive to crackdown on fraud because unions are able to increase their bottom-line if more people are able to bill Medicaid. “These incentives create a vicious cycle: Lax program integrity standards mean more demand for caregivers, more caregivers mean more union dues, and more union dues mean more donations for the elected officials who are supposed to be guarding the cash register,” he added. While joining a union is supposed to be completely optional, Oz accused some of California’s most influential labor organizations of forcing healthcare workers to join instead of offering a choice.
Op-ed: How one California law created 1.2 million headaches
August 3, 2026 // AB 339, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom last year and in effect since January, requires local public agencies to give unions 45 days’ notice before issuing or renewing a contract for services that represented employees could perform. The intent is sound: to prevent agencies from quietly outsourcing work that civil servants could and should be doing. But somewhere between the Capitol and the reality of county HR departments, the operational math fell apart.
Newsom celebrates boosting California’s minimum wage to highest rate in the country
August 3, 2026 // California's push for higher wages has also faced opposition from business groups that warn increased labor costs can translate into higher prices, reduced hiring, or fewer hours for workers. The debate has been particularly pronounced around the state's fast-food wage law. Newsom, meanwhile, has increasingly contrasted California's economic policies with those of the president and congressional Republicans as he raises his national political profile.
Commentary: California’s War on Goats Could Worsen the Wildfire Crisis
July 30, 2026 // State lawmakers intervened by passing legislation to allow goat herders to be paid the same alternative minimum as sheep herders until July 1, 2026. Now that the exemption has expired, goat herders must be paid according to traditional overtime rules. Given the 24/7 availability required for herding, this means that Golden State goat herders are now set to be paid $20,000 per month, which works out to $240,000 annually. (For comparison, California Gov. Gavin Newsom's salary currently sits at $245,000). An effort to extend the goat herding exemption beyond 2026 stalled in the state legislature due to opposition from labor unions. Goat-herding businesses have been left scrambling. Western Grazers, a company that deploys roughly 5,000 goats across Northern California, says the new rules push the annual cost of employing each herder above $250,000 once room and board, food, and other expenses are included.