Hello and happy Tuesday. There are 13 days until the inauguration and folks, my vacation was not long enough.

But here we are, and I’m hoping your new year has started off with joy and amnesia. We know it has for MAGA diehards, who gloried in Monday’s peaceful certification of the election results — while staunchly maintaining that the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection was little more than confused tourists wandering past the guide ropes.

Meanwhile, back in California, we saw another tradition on Monday, or a truncated version of one anyway. Gov. Gavin Newsom gave a preview-lite of his coming budget, which is due Friday. Normally, the governor walks through the entire spending plan penny by penny in an hours-long slog that involves endless use of the words “fundamental” and “unprecedented.”

But, in Jimmy Carter’s last act of kindness, his funeral bumped that plan, leaving Newsom (who’s flying to D.C. to attend) with a quick rundown of his spending proposal, given as part of a Central Valley news conference.

There were some highlights — most notably, he predicts no deficit. The total budget comes in at $322.2 billion, thanks in part to state revenues that have increased by more than $16.5 billion. That’s a huge relief after two tough years of running in the red (though he still plans on pulling from the rainy day fund to make the math work).

There will be months of wrangling before the final budget is enacted in June, but let’s follow the money.

President-elect Donald Trump gestures after ringing the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange on Dec. 12.

(Alex Brandon / Associated Press)

The Republicanization of Democrats

If there’s another big takeaway from Newsom’s budget, it’s this: Democrats are trying really, really hard to sound more like Republicans, without actually acting like Republicans — a clear retrenching in the wake of the presidential defeat.

Of course, that isn’t entirely a new development. Anyone listening to the governor over the last year has heard him slide to the right on issues including crime and homelessness, especially as voters showed overwhelming support for Proposition 36, which passed soundly and which will roll back some criminal justice reforms.

For Newsom, that slide to the center came through on Monday by shying away from the aspirational and focusing on the practical. The theme of this year’s budget — “safe, clean, accountable California” — is all about the basics.

For L.A. folks, he promised (again) a doubling of tax credits for the entertainment industry to about $750 million to help California regain its competitiveness against places such as New York and Georgia, which have seen productions move their way for years. In a bizarre moment, he pointed to the recent return of the Apple+ show “Bad Monkey” from filming in Florida, after receiving a $20-million incentive. And he gave a shoutout to the Vince Vaughn-led farce, saying, “If you can get over the severed arm, it’s a pretty good show.”

In more general spending (and the kind more expected from our Democratic governor) he promised full funding for transitional kindergarten (long a priority for Newsom); free school meals; and increased access to before- and after-school programs as well as summer school.

He also pointed out that a promise to create 500,000 apprenticeships — a non-college pathway to good-paying jobs — was on track to exceed that number, with the creation of 624,895 such placements expected by 2029.

But he is a Democrat

Of course, Newsom — who for a time was a surrogate for the Biden campaign — couldn’t resist taking some swipes at President-elect Donald Trump. Because, after all, he is a Democrat.

“What you see with the president-elect is fire and fury,” Newsom said.

How much of that translates into action remains to be seen. Trump has promised multiple executive orders on his first day, potentially on immigration, and has proposed a kitchen-sink piece of legislation that would include border issues, tax reform and energy policy.

Newsom has asked the Legislature for $25 million in funding for the attorney general to have on hand to fight Trump in courts. During the last Trump term, California filed more than 100 lawsuits against the Trump administration, many of which attacked it (at least partially successfully) for skirting process and law when it came to implementing his agenda.

Though no one is certain what Trump will do this time, I’ll bet dimes to donuts California takes him to court — again and again. So we’ll definitely be spending some money on that.

Because, as Newsom pointed out, Trump “may assert dictatorial points of view, but he is not a dictator.”

Yet.

What else you should be reading:

The must-read: Congress certifies Trump win without melodrama
The what’s next: A lack of wastewater testing is blinding the Central Valley to its bird flu problem
The L.A. Times special: An ‘industry behemoth.’ Inside the federal government’s efforts to break up Google

Stay Golden,
Anita Chabria

P. S.: In case you missed the Golden Globes, here’s the six best moments from the L.A. Times insiders who were there.

Demi Moore at the Golden Globe Awards.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

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