Los Angeles was caught by the Trump Administration using money for the disabled inappropriately, thus losing $80 million in grants. Now we find Garcetti got the idea of abusing the taxpayers from Sacramento. Jerry Brown was caught to inappropriately $331 million for political purposes instead of for housing for distressed California homeowners. Now the question is, will Guv Newsom obey the court order—and will he make public how he is going to spend the money PRIOR to spending it.
“Today, legislative Republicans issued a letter calling on Governor Gavin Newsom to disclose his plan to spend $331 million that a court ruled Democrats had illegally diverted from programs to help financially-distressed homeowners.
The funding, obtained from a settlement agreement in a 2012 lawsuit over unfair lending practices, was intended to provide legal aid, foreclosure hotlines, consumer education and efforts to combat financial fraud. Instead, the state used the money to pay down unrelated government debt.
To Democrats money is fungible. This is why you never vote for higher taxes or bonds—government will tell you how they will spend the money. But, once they get it spend it on anything they want. In the real world this is called corruption.
Legislative Republicans Demand Details of Governor Newsom’s Plan to Spend Housing Settlement Funds
Assembly Republican Caucus, 7/24/19
SACRAMENTO – Today, legislative Republicans issued a letter calling on Governor Gavin Newsom to disclose his plan to spend $331 million that a court ruled Democrats had illegally diverted from programs to help financially-distressed homeowners.
The funding, obtained from a settlement agreement in a 2012 lawsuit over unfair lending practices, was intended to provide legal aid, foreclosure hotlines, consumer education and efforts to combat financial fraud. Instead, the state used the money to pay down unrelated government debt.
“The state’s highest court has weighed in and agreed that the governor needs to return the $331 million originally allocated to help struggling homeowners. Legislative Republicans have requested that the governor create a plan to return this money and stop playing hide and seek with the funds. Otherwise, this is just another broken promise out of Sacramento,” said Senate Republican Leader Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield).
“While Democrats were unsuccessfully defending their raid on this funding, thousands of Californians lost their homes,” said Assembly Republican Leader Marie Waldron (Escondido). “It’s long past time that this money went to help struggling homeowners. The Governor needs to make homeownership assistance a priority – Californians have waited long enough.”
Following an April ruling that the state had improperly raided the settlement funds, legislative Republicans urged Governor Newsom to accept the decision and forgo any appeals. The Governor ignored that request and filed an appeal to the California Supreme Court. Late last week, the high court rejected the Governor’s arguments and directed the administration to use the settlement funding to help homeowners.
The letter to Governor Newsom is available here. Documents from the case, National Asian American Coalition v. Newsom, are available here.
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