ANALYSIS: TRUE. Joel Kotkin: Newsom is Gruesome.
Gavin Newsom is hiring a New York PR firm to sell California โ ahead of his likely presidential bid โ at a cost to taxpayers of $19 million.
Why does California need outside help? After all, as Newsom likes to remind us, the state is one of the largest economies on earth.
But the governorโs actual record could be a problem for his presidential bid. Hence his familiar solution: To portray California as a vibrant economy, and to counter โmyths driven by misinformation and political rhetoric.โ . . .
US News places California, despite the tech boom, as 42nd in fiscal health among the states. The stateโs Legislative Analyst Office projects continued operating deficits through 2028.
The rich and ultra-rich โ many of whom are already leaving โ are all that stands between the state and fiscal disaster. Without their outrageous income, the whole system tilts toward failure.
One reason for this dependence lies in the sad fact that the income outlook for the rest of the population is far from bright.
Newsomโs neo-feudal California has hemorrhaged 1.6 million above-average-paying jobs in the past decade, more than twice as many as any other state. It has created five times as many low-wage as high-wage jobs.
And not enough of those.
