Democrat California Gov. Gavin Newsom elected not to dedicate funds in his proposed budget to enforce a widely-popular ballot proposal that passed in November, prompting small business owners and lawmakers to tell the Daily Caller News Foundation that they aren’t pleased that the governor appears to be ignoring the will of the voters.
In November 2024, 68.4% of California voters approved Prop 36, aimed at cracking down on retail theft and drug use and subsequently reversing Proposition 47, which reduced criminal punishments such as shoplifting and grand theft. But when Newsom released his revised $322 billion budget in May, small business owners and lawmakers criticized him for leaving out funding and ignoring the measure’s broad support.
Speaking to the DCNF ahead of the November 2024 vote, Fraser Ross, owner of a small business with multiple locations across Los Angeles County, said theft in the city had been rampant. He described how businesses were “taking a loss” because Prop 47 downgraded drug possession penalties and reclassified thefts under $950 from felonies to misdemeanors.
The small business owner ripped into Newsom when asked by the DCNF about the governor’s decision to exclude funding for the measure in his May budget revision. “He’s just a puppet and he has no care for California,” Ross told the DCNF. “He likes to emphasize we’re now the fourth biggest economy in the world, wherever these statistics came from. But Newsom does not care about business in California.”
Hellbound and Down 