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This surprised us this morning… Ultra-libertarian DC think-tank the CATO Institute put out fiscal ratings on America’s governors this week and it appears that Gov. Gavin Newsom, who California right-wingers love to bash as super-lefty, scored pretty high. (Photo via gov.ca.gov) CATO gave Newsom a C grade and wrote this: The pace of spending growth has fallen under Newsom, compared with the 13.7 percent increase in Brown’s final year. In Newsom’s first year as governor, general fund spending increased 5.6 percent.[…]Fortunately, California entered the current recession in a better position than the last one. In 2014, voters approved Proposition 2, which created a more robust funding structure for the state’s rainy day fund. The rainy day fund balance has grown from 4.6 percent of annual spending in 2014 to 13.7 percent by 2020. Obviously, CATO being ultra-libertarians, they dinged Newsom for tax hikes that left-of-center Californians would argue were basically…

Water: With ever more climate change underway, drought in parts of California and years of horror stories regarding toxic water coming out of Flint, Michigan, progressives know water policy is important. In the Golden State, progressives are rightly making water policy a priority. But there’s a problem: Newly-inaugurated Gov. Gavin Newsom seems to be going about it in a way that could turn out to actually be regressive. Newsom could end up hurting the same poor Californians he’s trying to help. Where water is concerned, Newsom’s progressivism seems to have gone missing-in-action. If you haven’t heard about Newsom’s plan, the Sacramento Bee has a summary: Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed a tax on drinking water Thursday to help disadvantaged communities clean up contaminated water systems. Newsom’s plan for a “safe and affordable drinking water fund,” included in the new governor’s first budget proposal, attempts to revive an idea that died in the Legislature…