Governor Gavin Newsom has found another way to waste millions of dollars of California taxpayers’ hard-earned money.
The tone-deaf Democrat leader, who has already expressed his own hypocrisy by ignoring state stay-at-home orders he issued, came under fire for reportedly planning to spend $80 million on a public health campaign which will include 1,000 billboards that many Californians under coronavirus lockdowns will never even see.
While businesses struggle with draconian restrictions imposed by Newsom, who was slammed last month for attending a maskless, indoor birthday party, he announced the “public education campaign” at a Monday press conference.
As California began the latest lockdowns which run right through Christmas, the governor sparked immediate backlash for the plan that he unveiled on Monday. Newsom provided a sneak peek at some of the billboards that are part of the campaign and will include messages about social distancing and wearing protective face masks.
“I wanted to connect more to the cause of education and I wanted to update you on some of that work,” Newsom said in his press briefing. “Over 80 million dollars in kind and direct supports for a new public education campaign, over 80 million dollars.”
New billboards coming to CA—1000 of them, says @GavinNewsom—as he says the state is going to be “more smashmouth” and blunt in its messaging to get people to wear masks and stop the spread of #COVID19. Here’s one set: pic.twitter.com/ENfbTFoUQZ
— SovernNation (@SovernNation) December 7, 2020
Newsom explained that over 1,000 billboards will display the new “iconic” ads as he showed “mock-ups” of two signs that “you physically will see.” The Democrat added that the state is trying to be “more smashmouth” in its coronavirus messaging so people can pay more attention.
More “creative images, colorful images” will begin to appear, he promised.
“Just thought I would bring to your attention what we are working on and what you will start to see,” he added.
The Southern California region just began new, tougher restrictions this week with a stay-at-home order amid a spike in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations. Salons, barbershops, and many indoor recreational facilities have to close under the directive even though retail stores can continue to operate with capacity limits.
Residents in the region received an emergency alert from the state on Tuesday, reminding them to stay at home.
.@Cal_OES will issue region-wide emergency alerts at noon Tuesday, asking residents to stay home except for essential activities. The alert will be sent via text message through the Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) system across Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley. pic.twitter.com/RZl8dUY5d7
— Cal OES (@Cal_OES) December 8, 2020
Newsom sparked backlash with his announced public health campaign, with many questioning the logic of spending $80 million at a time when businesses are struggling to stay afloat. Criticism has been leveled at the governor over his own hypocrisy on coronavirus orders and a recent report indicated that several companies partially-owned by the Democrat received millions of dollars from the Paycheck Protection Program.
“$80 million to ‘educate’ you on why you have to close the only source of income you have for the holidays even though the government has no plans to send you back some of your own money to help you traverse the closures. This is not policy,” RedState editor-at-large Kira Davis tweeted in reaction to Newsom’s announcement. “This is insanity. Ignore it all.”
“I know 800 restaurants that could use 100k to stay out of Bankruptcy,” celebrity chef Andrew Gruel, who recently called Newsom out in a scathing video message, tweeted.
I know 800 restaurants that could use 100k to stay out of Bankruptcy. https://t.co/ofmmuIgTzn
— Chef Andrew Gruel (@ChefGruel) December 7, 2020
Others on Twitter also slammed the governor and the plan.
If @GavinNewsom is not deliberately destroying capitalism in CA, then he is a complete idiot.
He’s not stupid. He is evil. https://t.co/JJ7fkhjloI
— SUPER-SPREADER Nick Searcy, INT’L FILM & TV STAR (@yesnicksearcy) December 7, 2020
Gov. Newsom is spending $80 million on “iconic” billboards to educate the public about a virus we’ve been living with for nine months. We’ll now receive “smashmouth” reminders to social distance while driving on the freeway.
— Kevin Kiley (@KevinKileyCA) December 8, 2020
Journalists — this is not hard. The follow up questions are: who is getting paid to design the billboards?
Is there a media commission involved? Are the large billboard vendors donors or otherwise tied to Governor/Dem machine? In fact legislators in both parties should ask too. https://t.co/q8O9s1DwcW— Harmeet K. Dhillon (@pnjaban) December 7, 2020
$80 million could keep 800 (minimum) restaurants in business, and another 3-4,000 Californian’s employed.
— JD Sharp (@imjdsharp) December 7, 2020
California: businesses are going under, millions of people unemployed, people behind on rent
Clown governor Gavin Newsom: I’m wasting $80 million of your taxpayer money on billboards about COVID. Even though Google is free.
— Mexican Rug Dealer (@DealinRugs) December 7, 2020
That should be spent on people who have been forced to close their businesses… what a slap in the face to them!
— Kacey Montoya (@kaceymontoya) December 8, 2020
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.
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