Hesitancy was not on the agenda as Gov. Newsom delivered his second State of the State address to California, alluding immediately to the COVID pandemic, more specifically its impact on Californian’s.
Newsom made this evident as he stood firmly, thanking health care and essential workers for their sacrifice and courage during these more than trying times.
He then signaled for a moment of acknowledgment for the 54,395 Californian’s we have now lossed, almost the number of empty seats in Dodger Stadium. Where Newsom gave the address alone on stage.
He was looking to rally his state as revenue losses from the pandemic shutdowns startled the economy and a recall election awaiting him in the summer.
“Too many Forever goodbyes with over 200 million in mourning”, Newsome said “Even as we grieve, dream of brighter days ahead… We won’t be defined by this moment, we will be defined by what we do because after all; we are Californian’s. We go first and we go boldly,”.
Newsome references the progessive leaps in legislation of gay, civil, and gun rights. He then went on to praise California for trusting science and data, amongst having the most robust vaccination system in the country.
“This is certainly a fight for California’s future… We will not crawl back, we will roar back… We will write the next chapter of California’s story,”.
The Governor prides the decision to admit stay at home orders first in the nation. But according to recent polls from Berkeley University, one of the most significant factors into Newsom’s recall is the mandated stay at home orders.
People saw as “threatening their liberties” and costly to California’s leading economy including Patrick Stevens, who signed the petition before Newsom gave his address.
Newsom laid out an expansive vision for California including massive funding for schools k-12 with some of the 15 billion surplus, homeless programs such as project roomkey; setting up over 45,000 homeless with rooms, as well as 10 million into an infrastructure plan affecting equity and affordability across the state.
He promised more funding for food banks, diapers, and farmers. Proposed free community college tuition for 2 years and the largest small business grant,2.5 billion$, and the Golden State stimulus of 600$ to every adult Californian.
Newsom says “listen to the experts and build blocks guided by evidence, leading the way out of the pandemic…lives were saved because of stay at home orders as Fauci said it was necessary… safely reopen, moving fast, being mindful not letting down our guard guided by equity principles.”
Remote learning and child education became the subject as Newsom said “It is only widening the gap…equitable vaccination, economic support, and kids back to school. We are designing our system around that.”
Not a simple task as he reminds the streaming audience, there are over 11,000 schools and 7,000 districts that lie among the 58 counties.
Without discouragement Newsom told the crowd “routine Covid testing to low income, PPE to all schools, and committing 6.6 million to learning loss. Starting with lower grades and working our way up from there”.
The widening gaps of income inequality are still a problem in California. Reminding Californians of why he started his political career,
Newsom says “Why I ran for Governor to fix these disparities like climate change…risk taking is in our DNA prosperity is sheer force of will. We are not naïve, we are staying mindful. California isn’t the world’s best by birth rights. We have to earn it everyday… faith over fear, optimism over pessimism, power truly is in our hands. This is our moment to create and extend the dream of prosperity, equity, and progress. This is our moment to create the California we all wanna live in to continue to lead the world into the future once more”.