Newsom echoes former Gov. Jerry Brown and acts like Sacramento’s last adult.
During his final two terms as California’s governor, Jerry Brown pressed some hard-to-defend stances, yet even many Republicans conceded that he remained Sacramento’s last grown-up—a steadying influence against the wildest proposals swirling in the Capitol. In a farewell chat with NPR, as he prepared to depart, he highlighted his work on reigning in the budget, offering a window into his measured approach. He criticized Republicans for seeming to exist simply to veto, while also admonishing his fellow Democrats, whose problem, he argued, is they are quick to utter “yes,” even to harebrained schemes.
I miss his blunt candor. Brown achieved a number of consequential goals, including dismantling redevelopment agencies that drained tax revenue and undermined property rights, addressing California’s prison overcrowding by adopting an inventive realignment scheme that shifted nonviolent inmates to county facilities, and overhauling the state’s overloaded public pension system for employees. He leveraged his political capital to advance these controversial yet essential reforms. A decade later, the results validated all of these hallmark reforms.
Cities across California have fared well without those clumsy redevelopment authorities, and the state’s finances have benefited from the restoration of money previously siphoned from core services. New analyses indicate that realignment helped the state satisfy a court mandate without any uptick in violent crime. Brown also contended that his Public Employees’ Pension Reform Act (PEPRA), which trimmed benefits chiefly for new hires, would stabilize the pension systems at the present moment. And indeed, that forecast proved accurate.
Brown’s heir, Governor Gavin Newsom, has tilted more toward the progressive agenda and, at times, appeared ready to undercut Brown’s imprint on fiscal priorities. Therefore, Newsom’s veto last Sunday of Assembly Bill 1383—a measure that would have erased one of Brown’s marquee legislative achievements: pension reform—felt like a mature, prudent act.
Disregarding lessons from the past, lawmakers from both sides rushed to curry favor with public unions, advancing a bill that would have gutted PEPRA by permitting safety personnel to access richer pension calculations and retire sooner. As PEPRA had begun to function smoothly with the post-PEPRA generation in the workforce, these experts sought to revert to the pre-PEPRA era, even at the expense of local budgets and pension systems, wagering that equity markets would forever rise.
“I feared Newsom would unravel Brown’s work and severely damage Jerry Brown’s legacy,” recalled former Senator John Moorlach, a Orange County Republican who led the pension-reform charge. “It’s somewhat late in the game, but he’s now taking steps to safeguard his own fiscal record—and, perhaps, his broader ambitions on the national stage.”
Prior to Newsom’s veto, Brown— rarely heard from since leaving office — spoke to CalMatters about AB 1383: “Each year, efforts surface to secure larger benefits for various groups, and while some organizations, such as firefighters, present stronger cases than others, the government nonetheless must operate within boundaries. The principal peril of pension schemes is that the risk materializes long after today’s lawmakers and advocates have faded away, so today’s leadership must act as guardians for those who will rely on them in the future.”
Considering the high compensation and perks enjoyed by firefighters, I take issue with his first point, though the rest rings true. Unions press for raises annually, and lawmakers largely concede, knowing they’ll be pursuing new offices when the payrolls come due. In Moorlach’s day, Republicans frequently argued against benefit increases, yet this year just two Republicans opposed the AB 1383 concession.
That makes his restraint even more remarkable given his own patchy fiscal résumé. ‘PEPRA emerged as essential reform born from a crisis worsened by previous policies,’ Newsom wrote in the veto note. ‘I remember—before PEPRA passed in 2012—the troubling projections, the harsh attacks on public workers, and the mounting push to scrap defined-benefit plans. This is a chapter of California history I hope not to repeat.’
It’s striking that the measure advanced so far, given how closely it echoes the 1999 Senate Bill 400, which helped precipitate the 2012 budget crisis. Fortunately, Newsom keeps that memory alive. Local government associations breathed easier, with the California State Association of Counties underscoring the point: “In a moment of severe fiscal uncertainty and rising service demands, it is more essential than ever for state leaders to curb costs.” Expanding pensions would have bordered on reckless as recession fears mounted.
Budgetary recession cautions also bring Brown to mind, a governor known for issuing such warnings when the budget was in focus. Admittedly, Newsom has embraced this stance rather late, yet future California officials will value this mature choice.
This column originally appeared in The Orange County Register.
