Newsom Spends $300M to Gerrymander Maps, but Gives the Stiff Arm to CA Firefighters
- Newsom pours big money into political maps while ignoring state workers
- Firefighters get vetoed pay raises despite rising costs and dangerous work
- Budget priorities reveal political ambition over governing responsibility
Gavin Newsom has been doing everything possible to get people to pay attention to him. The governor’s social media antics mimic Donald Trump but land as juvenile and inauthentic, as others have noted. His rhetoric keeps escalating, including calling U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement “President Trump’s private domestic army”—moments before a fatal shooting at an ICE facility.
Meanwhile, Newsom is spending nearly $300 million to push a constitutional amendment that would redraw California’s maps in ways critics call brazenly partisan. He’s also backed a law banning law enforcement from wearing masks, even as federal agents face more hostility. The signal is clear: optics and political power come before practical governance.
When it comes to the people who actually protect Californians, Newsom’s priorities wobble. He vetoed a bipartisan bill to raise CAL FIRE salaries, refusing to align state pay with local departments that pay 11 to 29% more. That veto came despite widespread legislative support and after the state’s costliest inferno in history.
Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bipartisan bill to raise the salaries of California firefighters nine months after the most expensive inferno in state history incinerated Los Angeles.
On Friday, Newsom formally refused to sign a bill that would have bumped wages for CAL FIRE — the state firefighting service — up closer to those of certain local fire departments, which pay their firefighters 11 to 29% more.
The base pay for state firefighters is only $54,122 per year — while Los Angeles city firefighters make at least $85,315.
The veto came after a long battle for higher pay by state firefighters, which had almost unanimous support from California lawmakers.
Fifty-four thousand dollars a year might work in some places, but not in California with its crushing taxes and sky-high living costs. The state has one of the steepest income taxes and the highest gas tax, so take-home pay doesn’t stretch far. Firefighters risk their lives daily; treating them like a budget line is the wrong calculation.
California GOP Rep. Kevin Kiley pushed back hard, and the public reaction was fierce.
But Newsom said the bill would put “significant cost pressures” on state coffers and argued it would “circumvent the collective bargaining process,” in a letter explaining his reasoning.
CalFire union members condemned the governor’s decision.“It’s highly disappointing and frustrating especially when he vetoes the bill the day before we put six members on the memorial wall honoring fallen firefighters in the state of California,” Tim Edwards, president of the Local 2881 union representing CAL FIRE workers, told SFGATE.
The bill would have set a wage floor for CAL FIRE employees to within 15% of the average of 20 local departments.
https://twitter.com/KevinKileyCA/status/1975401414634668490
To many Californians, this looks like politics over people: spend big to reshape elections, but pinch pennies for those who save lives. Newsom acts like a candidate first and a governor second, and the consequences are real for frontline workers. A Newsom presidency, if he pursues it, would likely prioritize spectacle over substance.
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