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May 8, 2020
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** AG THROWS ANCHOR TO CA WORKERS LOOKING FOR A LYFT
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Nearly one-quarter of the state workforce disappears in seven weeks: 318,000 ([link removed]) Californians filed for unemployment benefits last week. Over the past seven weeks, more than four million Californians have filed initial jobless claims – 23 percent of the state’s workforce.

Can curbside pickup staunch the bleeding? Gov. Newsom is easing ([link removed]) business lockdown restrictions starting today. Bookstores, music stores, toy stores, sporting goods stores, clothing stores, and florists are now allowed to reopen for curbside pickup.

They have one and two Covid deaths, respectively: Newsom criticized ([link removed]) Yuba and Sutter counties this week for allowing hair salons and dine-in restaurants to reopen in violation of the state’s timeline. He warned they were “making a big mistake” that puts “those businesses at risk” of getting shut down.

AG throws anchor to CA workers looking for a Lyft: The state Attorney General and the Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco City Attorneys filed a lawsuit ([link removed]) this week against Uber and Lyft for allegedly misclassifying their combined half a million or so California drivers as independent contractors. This lawsuit marks the enforcement phase of AB5, and it comes at the worst possible time. Uber, Lyft, and other gig opportunities are the only jobs that many out of work Californians can quickly and easily get right now.

CPC’s rebuttal via President Will Swaim in the OC Register: “Uber and Lyft, similar to many of their Silicon Valley brethren, are mere software platforms, which match drivers with riders. Classifying these drivers as employees means saddling these tech companies with the associated taxes, benefits, regulations, and liabilities that labor law requires, raising costs and reducing job opportunities. Uber and Lyft drivers don’t have to report to a boss, can decline work, set their schedules, and blast Dr. Dre from their radios. Know any other employees with these freedoms?” (Look for the piece ([link removed]) in the Sunday print edition.)

Golden State deficit exceeds Great Recession: Newsom announced ([link removed]) this week that the state’s projected budget deficit is set to come in at $54.3 billion – higher than the deficit during the Great Recession. California enjoyed a $21 billion surplus last year and just three months ago had planned on a $6 billion surplus.

Uncle Sam steps in: California borrowed ([link removed]) $348 million from the federal government this week to make unemployment payments. It’s the first state to borrow from the federal government.

Finally breaking the California Rule? The California Supreme Court heard arguments ([link removed]) this week on a union challenge to former Gov. Brown’s 2012 law to end pension spiking. The case has broader implications over whether California's pension commitments can ever be reformed. The unions are attempting to invoke the “California Rule” – Supreme Court precedence finding that pension benefits cannot legally be reduced for existing public employees no matter their implications on taxpayers. Pension spiking is just one of the most egregious ways in which public-sector unions have put the state in fiscal peril. The California Rule must be broken before more substantive reforms to rein in out of control pension costs can be made.

Pensions in the time of Covid: Writes CPC Contributor Larry Sand in his latest contribution ([link removed]) , “Long after the coronavirus fades into history, there will be many lingering effects. And high on that list very well may be the toll on public employee pensions and the beleaguered taxpayers who pay for them.”

Room Service: The San Francisco Department of Public Health admitted ([link removed]) that it is providing "limited quantities" of alcohol, marijuana, and tobacco through private funding to addicts in the publicly-funded municipal program to house the homeless population in hotels.

Progressives' proof of concept: CPC President Will Swaim and CPC Board Member David Bahnsen discuss Newsom’s tough talk on the lockdown and progressives’ emergency orders as proof of concept for future governance on this week’s episode ([link removed]) of National Review’s Radio Free California.

Megacities require mega suburbs: CPC Contributor Edward Ring explains that suburbs are necessary to lower housing costs in his latest ([link removed]) contribution: “Only when cities can build out as well as up can there be less expensive construction costs and lower land costs.”

Must every newspaper editorial page fit through the Overton window? The Santa Barbara News-Press, the first of just three newspapers nationwide to endorse Donald Trump for President in 2016, is taking heat again for a recent editorial ([link removed]) by its publisher, Wendy McCaw. Is the piece controversial? Yes. Will anyone agree with all of it? Probably not. Is it refreshing to see a newspaper opinion piece that doesn’t fit on the 3x5 card of allowable opinion? Most definitely. Writes McCaw:

Feeding fear is a powerful tool and it’s been used effectively by those in offices elected and unelected and it’s been used very effectively by dictators in the past…. We are living in tyranny right now brought to you by tinhorn dictators in governors’ offices, and medical professionals and elites in ivory towers who have never run a business in their lives…. If this country can be put into this situation by a virus, what would it take to completely turn us into the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany?


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Jordan Bruneau
Communications Director

Are you a California parent of school-aged kids? Take our short Parent Union survey to voice your experience with your children's schools during this pandemic. We want to know! Click here ([link removed]) to take the survey.

Virtual Townhall Event: The Lincoln Club is pleased to partner with Reform California on an important Virtual Town Hall on Tuesday, May 12 at 11 am on “California’s New Fiscal Crisis: How Covid-19 May Lead to a Wave of Bankruptcies in California State and Local Government.” This meeting will give you a good understanding of the fiscal crisis we are entering and how YOU can help organize the reform fight in your area. The meeting is EASY to attend - either by phone, over the internet on Zoom, or on Facebook Live. RSVP for the Townhall and get the simple instructions here. ([link removed])




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