LAUREL ROSENTHAL CalMatters Facing a trifecta of extraordinary circumstances â the waning COVID-19 pandemic, a looming recall election and an insanely flush state budget â Gov. Gavin Newsom barnstormed the state, dropping good news by the billions. He wants to spend $12 billion to house the homeless, the governor announced in the lobby of a San Diego motel converted into a shelter; $3.4 billion to expand preschool to all 4-year-olds, he said on the playground of an elementary school in Monterey County; $1.5 billion cleaning up blight, he said as TV news crews filmed him hoisting an old mattress off the side of a Los Angeles freeway.