SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Governor Gavin Newsom said enacting President Donald Trump's executive order to extend unemployment insurance would cost the State of California $700m a week. Gov. Newsom said states would be responsible for paying 25 percent of the White House’s proposal for $400 a week in unemployment benefits, an expense that California could not cover without making "massive cuts."
Newsom said the state would have to generate $2.8 billion a month to keep up with the demand.
“The state does not have an identified resource of $700m a week that we have not addressed,” Newsom said. “For the state to absorb $700m per week would create a burden the likes of which even a state as large as California could not absorb without massive cuts.”
The governor said that California had spent about 75 percent of the CARES Act funds it had received from the federal government.
During an update Monday on the state's response to the coronavirus pandemic, Gov. Newsom emphasized that Black and LatinX residents of the state were being disproportionately impacted by the virus. Of the latest round of new cases announced by the state, some 58.8 percent occurred within the LatinX community.
Newsom also stressed that Black and LatinX residents were being disproportionately impacted by the virus' economic fallout, with some three quarters of those who have fallen behind on rent payments being either Black or LatinX.
Gov. Newsom announced the state had confirmed 7,751 new coronavirus case numbers on Sunday, taking the state's total confirmed coronavirus cases to 561,911 cases.
The governor had good news regarding ICU admissions, which have continued to decline and were down 13 percent over the past 14 days, with a 19 percent drop in hospitalizations over the past two weeks. Ventilator capacity has increased with 13,105 available statewide.
The governor announced that 66 additional people had succumbed to the virus, brining the state's total deaths to 10,359 people.
Gov. Newsom also addressed the sudden departure of the state's top public health officer, Dr. Sonia Angell, who abruptly resigned over the weekend following the revelation that a testing glitch had caused a significant backup in coronavirus test results.
"I try not to have personnel conversations in public as it relates," Gov. Newsom said. "I want to thank Dr. Angell for her leadership, her stewardship."
Despite being repeatedly pressed, Newsom refused to address the specifics of the matter.
"She resigned, she wrote a resignation letter, and I accepted her resignation. I don't want to air any more than that," Gov. Newsom said.
Newsom closed his remarks by emphasizing the need to take continued personnel precations and praised efforts by law enforcement to enforce mask wearing requirements.
"There is a lot of renewed focus on enforcement related to mask wearing and I say this respectfully, that's an encouraging sign, that's a good sign," Newsom said.