Gavin Newsom’s latest attempt to celebrate big business blew up in his face when he was rounded on by furious Californians for ignoring the reality of life in the Golden State.
The Democrat governor took to X, formerly Twitter, to revel in a survey suggesting that California now leads the US in Fortune 500 companies.
‘Huge’, be declared, ‘and something you definitely won’t hear on Fox News tonight.’
The backlash was certainly huge with hundreds of Californians tearing into his record on crime, drugs, housing, the budget deficit and the rest of the state’s economy
‘Cool, the rich are getting really, really rich and the middle class are becoming poor!’ wrote JD Sharp. ‘Welcome to sunny, socialist California!!’
The embattled governor was keen to trumpet a Fortune Magazine story suggesting that 57 of America’s biggest firms now call the state home, overtaking Texas and New York and putting California at the top of the list for the first time in 10 years.
‘More than Texas. More than Florida. 57 incredible and booming companies, right here in the Golden State,’ he boasted.
But many were keen to point out that people have been heading in the other direction with 340,000 more leaving than arriving in 2022.
Los Angeles has 340,000 fewer people than it did in 2019, while San Francisco, San Diego and Santa Clara counties are each around 40,000 people short.
Florida meanwhile gained nearly 250,000, while Texas had 174,261.
California’s population is 1.2 percent less than it was in 2019 will not reach pre-pandemic numbers until around 2032 on current trends.
‘Expect most of their employees are virtual or work in other states,’ tweeted Mericamemed.
‘Funny how many people have been voting with their feet and fleeing your state!’ added MacAttack001.
Others suggested that rampant house price inflation is contributing to the state’s homelessness epidemic.
Homelessness jumped 6 percent to more than 180,000 people in California last year, federal data show. And since 2013, the numbers have exploded by 53 percent with the state accounting for a third of America’s entire homeless population.
‘California is also the home to the most homeless people, most illegal immigrants, most needles and human feces on the street!’ wrote DPL.3.
‘Not to mention the most expensive place to live and most expensive taxes!’
California spent $24 billion tackling homelessness in the five years to 2023 but didn’t track if the money was helping the state’s growing number of unhoused people, a damning report revealed last month.
It has contributed to California’s budget deficit of at least $45 billion, prompting Newsom to propose painful spending cuts impacting immigrants, kindergarteners and low-income parents seeking childcare in a state often lauded for having the world’s fifth-largest economy.
‘How much of that $45billion deficit you are sporting went into these companies as tax breaks?’ demanded MacAttack. ‘Oh, did you find that $24billion you misplaced?
Reception of the Governor’s tin-eared tweet was not improved by its timing, coming a day after it was revealed that Fortune 500 CEO’s enjoyed an average 12.6 percent pay rise last year, dwarfing the 4.1 percent for private sector workers.
‘It’s nice that you are catering to large corporations instead of the little people,’ wrote Randal Nichol.
‘It is the little people who are moving to Texas and Florida.’
‘I’d rather you be bragging about the most small business that succeed, not enriching billionaires,’ added Angie G.
California’s burgeoning drug scene did not escape the attention of his detractors, or the state’s criminal justice record which saw the number of violent crimes jump by 27 percent between 2013 and 2022, and pickpocketing more than double.
‘Dude, people can’t even walk around in the daylight in San Francisco and not be robbed,’ wrote Danigen. ‘People can’t drive their cars without being jacked. The homeless are dying in the streets, criminals run rampant in your state.’
‘California leads the country in a lot of things: homelessness; undocumented immigrants; budget deficits; income tax rates; fuel prices; poor quality of infrastructure,’ added Charles May.
‘Hey but we have mostly great weather and scenery.’
But even the governor’s success story was not what he claimed, according to some.
‘For context, Texas has 55. California has 57,’ wrote community_notes. ‘California is also about 25 percent bigger in population than Texas: 30m vs 39m.
‘By population, it should have 68. And Texas and Florida have been gaining, too.
‘Gavin doesn’t mention that.’