People’s World: Newsom proposes record-setting public spending with ‘California Comeback Plan’

With California’s finances buoyed by unanticipated tax revenues and a $27 billion boost from the American Rescue Plan, Gov. Gavin Newsom on May 14 rolled out a proposed $267.8 billion budget he called “historic” and “transformational,” with infusions of funding for housing, education, healthcare, infrastructure, environmental justice, and immediate relief for families and small businesses.

Among spending priorities:

Housing: Some $12 billion would go toward building affordable housing and taking other steps to house the unhoused, including increasing mental health services. Of that, $7 billion would buy and rehabilitate additional hotels, motels, and vacant apartment buildings to provide unhoused people with interim or permanent housing through Project Homekey.

Affordable housing organizations praised Newsom’s proposals. Housing California called the governor’s commitment “unprecedented” and said it would lead to “generational benefits for our neighbors who are struggling the most.”

The Nonprofit Housing Association of Northern California applauded Newsom’s “bold leadership” and “historic investment” and urged the legislature “to advance the May Revision while also looking for opportunities to scale.”

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