Call it part of Gov. Newsom’s “Plan B” in case Donald Trump is president again

CA’s own emergency fund?

By Lynn La – CalMatters

Lynn La is the newsletter writer for CalMatters, focusing on California’s top political, policy and Capitol stories every weekday. She produces and curates WhatMatters, CalMatters’ flagship daily newsletter with more than 150,000 subscribers.

Based on Newsom’s experience in Trump’s first term — plus repeated Trump threats to withhold federal wildfire aid unless California follows his water policy — the governor is considering a contingency account if Trump is back in the White House and follows through.

The money would be used in response to disasters, including fires and floods, reports Politico. Newsom said he’s talking to officials in preparation for his January budget reveal.

He didn’t give a dollar figure, but the account would be on top of the state’s “rainy day” fund. About $4.9 billion was taken from that fund to help balance the 2024-25 state budget, and another $7.1 billion is to be withdrawn in 2025-26, leaving about $10.5 billion available. 

Newsom, to Politico: “You could have multiple disasters stacking up … and you’re going to have serious cash flow issues. … You have massive fires that cost billions and billions of dollars, just for the debris removal, let alone the recovery.”

Trump has a history: A former aide said that during California’s deadly 2018 wildfires, Trump initially refused to give disaster aid, but changed his mind after staffers told him that there were more Trump voters in Orange County than there were in all of Iowa.

And this month at a rally in Coachella, Trump brought up Newsom’s refusal to allow farmers to take more water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta by saying that he wouldn’t “give you (Newsom) any of that fire money that we send you all the time.”