California’s Gov. Gavin Newsom sure seems to love "emergency orders." After all, he’s created so many of them.
The governor clearly wants to keep the kind of power that accelerated during the pandemic years. In addition to seemingly endless COVID emergencies, there are many more on the books and more to come.
Wildfires, weather, water… it’s always something else. Newsom knows that any emergency decree quickly steps up control over citizens, creating additional government power while the people lose more of theirs.
This is incredibly ironic, since Newsom has taken pains to criticize others as "authoritarian" and is even touring the nation now deriding those whom he thinks exercise unbridled power.
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Of course, emergency orders are always about "public safety" and doing things out of "an abundance of caution." But there’s also an added bonus of making the people more fearful and conditioning them to believe that the only way to be safe is allowing government to exercise more control.
It’s also said that the emergencies are needed to get more federal money to the state. And while that’s often true, we have seen continued abuse of the process for political reasons, especially during COVID Seasons 1, 2 and 3.
Invoking constant emergency powers is also an easy way to mask growing deficits. In the first year of the pandemic, California received so much money from Washington that it appeared that the state had a surplus.
Now that the Uncle Sam cash has gone away, the reality (there before the Fed money) is here.
California is now facing a nearly $24 billion budget deficit this year, which doesn’t count the huge unfunded liabilities for state employee pensions and health care.
Since the state’s COVID emergencies are finally off his "emergency orders" list, there is no shortage of new opportunities for Newsom. Cranking out more "emergencies" keeps him in the public eye as the governor seeks more national exposure for his presumed presidential run.
Now it’s all about weather emergencies. As the atmospheric rivers have continued inundating California this year, Newsom eagerly pops into the state’s emergency control centers, dressed for the photo ops.
Governors need to be on top of such situations, but rarely do they go beyond a press conference. They don’t always hunker down with the people to make it through the onslaughts. Newsom certainly doesn’t.
Last month after one such event, he up and left the state for a few days just as Californians were enduring extra disasters. Why? Because he was busy "not running" for president in other areas.
Faced with the reality of his dire predictions concerning climate impact and California facing endless droughts, even Newsom can’t ignore the dramatic change in the water supply (and snow pack) since the sky turned on the faucets.
Newson has since lifted most of the more than 80 California drought edicts that were issued since last spring. But 33 orders remain, as he stopped short of declaring the state’s drought was over. Hanging on to power is addictive.
On March 24, Newsom made comments as he lifted some of the state’s water restrictions. When he announced an end to the restrictions he said, "Are we out of the drought? Is the drought over in the state of California? I want to affirm your instinct that it should be, it feels like it is. It is — and continues to be — complicated. And I know that's disappointing for some because it would be nice to have a governor say the drought is over."
Newsom explained that climate change makes this all so complicated. He added, by asking again, "Are we out of a drought?" And then gave this answer: "Mostly but not completely."
California has endured seemingly endless storms this year via 25 "atmospheric rivers" and possibly more on the way. There’s been near record snow and storm damage estimates are in the billions.
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Reservoirs have been filling up, but huge amounts of water will simply run out to sea, because the state has not been diligent in expanding current reservoirs or building new ones, mostly due to overdone state environmental regulations.
In 2014 voters approved Proposition 1, the water bond act. Most of the $7.5 billion has yet to be spent, and zero new dams have been built. It’s bogged down in delays and regulations.
$2.7 billion of Prop 1 money is to go to "storage." However, it can only be used for things such as salmon protection and recreation.
The history of California is replete with droughts and storms. Sometimes there’s a lot of time between them. That’s why we need leaders who will stand up and do what’s needed for the long term.
The California water project used human ingenuity to build storage that turned the state into an agricultural powerhouse, generating jobs and huge resources for our economy.
Politicians like Newsom who bend to the wishes of campaign funders such as extreme environmental groups have failed our future. The voters did their part with Proposition 1 but Newsom failed to act.
It’s past time for us to change our electoral system to reduce the power of these interest groups that continue to empower politicians like Newsom.
We need leadership to address problems like water infrastructure and we need it now.
John Cox is a businessman and 2018 Republican nominee for governor of California. He is chairman of the Rescue California Education Foundation.
