California Governor Gavin Newsom is planning on shutting down a veterans nursing home and giving that money – about $80 million – which would normally be allocated to it to people who aren’t even citizens.

Newsom’s plan has been to give cash payments from money to illegals who weren’t eligible to receive any money from the coronavirus stimulus packages (CARES Act).

Fortunately, conservative government watchdog group Judicial Watch requested a temporary restraining order to stop Newsom from taking hard-earned American money from the veterans who fought for our country and giving it to people who don’t even respect us or our laws.

“It is astonishing that a court would allow a public official to ignore the law and spend tax money with no legal authority. Simply put, as the court seems to acknowledge, the governor has no independent legal authority to spend state taxpayer money for cash payments to illegal aliens. We will appeal the court’s manifest error,” Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton said.

Released on Thursday, Newsom’s revised budget proposed to “initiate the closure” of the Veterans Home of California-Barstow and a one-year delay for realignment at VHC-Chula Vista and Yountville.

If approved, the changes would net state General Fund savings in Fiscal Year 2020-21 of $2.6 million, according to the revised budget. Long-term savings that would result from the Barstow facility’s closure are expected to be $14 million annually.

In total, the governor’s revisions would slash $6.1 billion from the state’s budget. The cuts are part of a plan to cover a $54.3 billion budget deficit caused by plummeting state revenues after a mandatory, statewide stay-at-home order forced most businesses to close and put more than 4.7 million people out of work.

Overall, the $203 billion spending plan is about 5% lower than what lawmakers approved last year.

City officials in Barstow, meanwhile, aren’t ready to give up the facility that was founded in 1996 as the second home for veterans in California and, at the time, the first built in more than 100 years.

“The City of Barstow will write a letter to Gov. Newsom pointing out the necessity of the Barstow Veterans Home,” Barstow Mayor Julie Hackbarth-McIntyre told the Daily Press. “We’ll also encourage our surrounding cities, the County of San Bernardino and local citizens to do the same.”

But a Department of Veterans Affairs letter sent to the “Barstow Veterans Home Family” on Thursday discusses the closure as if it were a foregone conclusion.

In the letter, which was obtained by the Daily Press, CalVet Secretary Vito Imbasciani said, “While this closure will be difficult for all of us, it is not entirely unexpected.”

“The Veterans Home of California Master Plan 2020 detailed that Barstow does not meet the criteria for an ideal veterans home location,” Imbasciani wrote. “The area does not have a large veteran population and the Home routinely has critical vacancies; the home is 90 minutes away from the nearest VA medical center; and among other issues, the lack of local nursing programs or a sizeable workforce makes it difficult to recruit for many positions.”

Sources:
Victorville Daily Press