Gavin’s Gaslight Tracker

Gavin’s Gaslight: In a conversation Michael Savage, Gavin Newsom claimed states like Texas and Florida have a worse tax system than California, saying Florida “taxes their low-wage workers more than we tax our high-wage workers” in California. 

Without even touching the fact that California is one of the most expensive states in the country, its clear Gaslighting Gavin in cherrypicking statistics. Instead of looking at overall tax rates, Gaslighting Gavin used the overall tax burden as a percentage of family income, according to Rep. Kevin Kiley. Of course, the tax burden would appear higher for lower income families, as they are still subject to the same sales, gas taxes, etc. as the wealthy, meaning it is a higher percentage of their income. Someone paying $5,000 a year in taxes while only making $30,000 would of course have a higher burden than someone paying the same tax amount, but making $150,000. If the Governor wanted to be fully transparent, he would look at the bigger picture. Florida has no income tax for state or local level, while Californians pay up to a 13.3% tax on income, with an added millionaires tax for those it applies to. Florida also has a gas tax rate of 38.6 centers while Californians pay a whopping 68.1 cents per gallon in taxes. Additionally, Rep. Kiley said, “taxes average $10,167 per person in California and only $5,406 in Florida.” And those are just some top line examples. That’s a four on Gavin’s Gaslight scale.

Gavin’s Gaslight: In his inaugural eponymous podcast episode, Gavin Newsom said “not one person ever in my office has ever used the word Latinx.”

The reality is, the Governor, his office, and his staff have a long record of using the term Latinx. There are multiple recorded instances of the Governor using the term. A few examples include a 2019 post from his official account citing a study on poverty, a 2020 post on his personal account regarding impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and an official press release about a youth vote campaign. The term is also included in the First Partner’s webpage on her Farm to School Campaign. While the gaslighting comments aren’t harmful, they are proven to be untrue. That’s a 3 on Gavin’s Gaslight scale. 

Gavin’s Gaslight: Newsom claimed that “[his] commitment to fair wages for fast-food workers is not only lifting up working families but also strengthening our economy,” and stated that “California’s $20 Fast-Food Minimum Wage Is a Win-Win-Win.”

Thanks to the implementation of Gavin Newsom’s $20 fast food minimum wage law, thousands of fast food employees lost their jobs, many saw their hours slashed, menu prices skyrocketed, and establishments shuttered their doors at an alarming rate. However, Newsom touted the law as a “win-win-win” for the state and pushed back against anyone citing government data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that was unfavorable to him, calling the data “fake numbers.” (Ignoring the fact that Newsom himself later went on to cherry pick data from the same “fake numbers” to claim victory over fast food workers.) The reality is, the best-available data shows California has lost over 6,000 jobs since the signing of the $20 wage law. That’s a big fat 5 on the gaslight scale.

Gavin’s Gaslight: Newsom claimed that California “dramatically slowed and reduced the growth of homelessness” in the state.

This is completely incorrect. In fact, California’s homeless totaled over 186,000 in 2024. That’s a 5,000-plus increase since 2023 and a 30,000 increase since 2019, when Newsom took office. That is after the state spent $24 billion on efforts to combat homelessness, according to a state auditor, with some localities such as Los Angeles receiving a $875 million budget. According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) California is also the worst state in America for homelessness. That’s another 5 on the gaslight scale for Gavin.

Gavin’s Gaslight: Gavin Newsom said “California’s been a leader in [the government efficiency] space,” acknowledging that “We all want to make sure our money is being well invested, not wasted.”

Well, if you consider doubling the staff in the Governor’s office, creating new departments, implementing flashy and ineffective initiatives, and overall having the largest government ever, efficient, then Newsom should win an award. Academics at the Stanford-based Hoover Institution calculate a 63 percent budget increase since 2019. In fact, the current government budget is over $100 billion more this fiscal year than it was before Newsom took office. Ballooning the budget, especially for pork policies, and padding his office staff is the exact opposite of government efficiency. That’s yet another big fat 5 for Gaslighting Gavin.

Gavin’s Gaslight: When questioned by a constituent during the disastrous Los Angeles fires on what went wrong, Gavin said “I am literally talking to the president right now.”

Gavin was not actively speaking with the president. After getting caught in his lie, Gavin backtracked saying he had apparently been attempting to get into contact with then-President Biden about various aid options for the community, but cell service was limited. The lack of transparency from the Governor is concerning. That’s a 3 for Gaslighting Gavin.

Gavin’s Gaslight: When the track-laying phase began on California’s high-speed rail system to connect San Francisco to Los Angeles, Gavin Newsom celebrated the project, saying, “The future of transportation is being realized right here in the Central Valley with thousands of good paying jobs already created and 171 miles being worked on. As only California can, we’re building America’s biggest infrastructure project.”

The high-speed rail system has been in the works since voters approved the idea in 2008. When Gaslighting Gavin took office, he said “Let’s be real. The current project, as planned, would cost too much and respectfully take too long. There’s been too little oversight and not enough transparency.” Now, he’s changing his tune, celebrating the track-laying process as a win for the state, saying “We can’t go back. We just have to accept the responsibility of where we are, and that’s exactly what we are doing.” However, the Governor isn’t taking responsibility for ballooning the estimated budget to around $100 billion more than when it was proposed to voters, nor his failures to hold the project to a consistent completion timeline. In fact, the current Merced-Bakersfield track would cost over $35 billion alone, and there’s no clear idea on how the Rail Authority will find the billions needed to finish the project. Now, even the Office of the Inspector General has concerns about the continually stalled project timeline, saying it has already been pushed off a whole year. Gavin is right, under his administration, the “only California can” always means behind schedule, drastically over budget, and wastes both taxpayer time and money. That’s a 3 for Gaslighting Gavin.