03/29/2024

How would Gavin Newsom pay for his promises?

Even assuming that California avoids a long-overdue economic downturn, where would Newsom get the immense sums of money that he’d need to deliver his agenda?

Just providing “guaranteed health care for all” would cost at least $100 billion more in taxes on someone, according to analyses of a single-payer measure that passed the Senate before stalling in the Assembly. And that assumes that the federal government, which now pays half of Californians’ $400 billion a year tab for health care, would shift that money into a new state program.

The other items on Newsom’s agenda, such as a “cradle-to-college promise,” would cost untold billions more.

Californians already have one of the nation’s highest state and local tax burdens as a percentage of their personal incomes, coughing up more than $300 billion a year. We have the nation’s highest income and sales tax bites and despite Proposition 13’s limits, hefty property taxes.

We may not be at the breaking point, but paying for Newsom’s promises, especially “guaranteed health care for all,” could increase the burden by 50 percent.

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