Gavin Newsom’s carveout for rich donor Greg Flynn is being hailed because the governor’s “biggest blunder since French LaundryGate.” Whereas the scandal shakes out, some key financial classes shouldn’t escape consideration.
This episode is fallout from Assembly Bill 1228, the Quick Meals Accountability and Requirements Restoration Act (FAST Act) signed by Gov. Newsom final September. The invoice mandates a $20-per-hour minimal wage for quick meals institutions, with a key exception. One part of the invoice mirrors the enterprise mannequin of Panera Bread, and institutions that bake bread can be exempt from the $20 minimal wage.
Greg Flynn, by some accounts a billionaire, owns 24 Panera retailers in California, together with Applebee’s, Taco Bell and so forth. Because it seems, Flynn went to the same high school as Newsom, and his firm bought the Carneros Inn from Newsom’s PlumpJack firm. Flynn has made political contributions to Newsom together with $100,000 to combat the 2021 recall and $64,000 to his reelection marketing campaign in 2022.
Flynn denies he knew Newsom in highschool and claims he by no means met personally with the governor over the minimal wage invoice – though he did meet with Newson’s staff. In related model, Gov. Newsom denies making an exception for certainly one of his rich donors. Californians finest not imagine something till it’s been formally denied, but it surely’s not nearly Newsom and Flynn.
From the editorial board: Panera flap shows how Sacramento really works
Carving out an exemption for anyone concedes that enterprise homeowners dislike authorities mandates to hike their workers’ wages, on this case from $15.50 to $20 per hour. The place politicians acquired the knowledge to make this mandate shouldn’t be fully clear. The deserves of minimum-wage legal guidelines have lengthy been a matter of debate, and it’s clear that they’ve unintended penalties.
Authorities-mandated wage hikes drive up costs, and that retains prospects away. Quick-food employees, typically on the backside of the financial ladder, could quickly be searching for one other job. As longtime California commentator Dan Walters explains, Gavin Newsom is anything but working class.
Gavin Newsom’s grandfather was a crony of Gov. Edmund G. “Pat” Brown, and his father a crony of Brown’s son Jerry, who as governor appointed William Newsom to judgeships in Placer County and the state Court docket of Attraction. The Newsoms even have a connection to the households of Nancy Pelosi and oil tycoon J. Paul Getty, as soon as one of many richest individuals on the earth, and father of Gordon Getty.
After leaving the bench, William Newsom grew to become administrator of the Gordon Getty belief. As Walters notes, that “offered seed cash for the PlumpJack chain of eating places and wine retailers,” managed by Gavin Newson.
As Californians could recall, whereas locking down the state in draconian model regime, Gov. Newsom wined and dined maskless on the upscale French Laundry. Newsom hasn’t been noticed consuming bread at Panera, which says it’s going to pay the $20 minimum wage. That’s hardly the one problem in play.
The FAST Act establishes a brand new “Fast Food Council,” to set minimal well being, security and employment requirements, past people who exist already. Chair of the council is Nicholas Hardeman, chief of workers to Sen. Toni Atkins, a particular assistant to former State Meeting Speaker John Pérez, and chief of workers to former State Meeting Speaker Fiona Ma.
Embattled Californians get the favor of a brand new forms, run by a authorities insider. Newsom’s favor to Flynn apart, the FAST Act is ruling class disdain for employees, taxpayers and financial freedom usually.
Lloyd Billingsley is a coverage fellow at the Independent Institute in Oakland, Calif.