Newsom Delivers Final State of the State Address: Unsheltered Homelessness Down 9%, Record Education Funding
On January 8, 2026, California Governor Gavin Newsom delivered his State of the State address to a joint session of the state Senate and Assembly at the State Capitol in Sacramento, Sacramento County, California. The governor's office said it was the final State of the State address of his tenure.
In the speech, Newsom said California had filed 52 lawsuits over federal funding and preserved $168 billion in federal resources that belong to the state's schools, hospitals and elders. He called California a beacon, described the federal government's conduct as not normal, and said California would not be silent and would not retreat.
On the budget and education, Newsom previewed a proposal built on a $248.3 billion General Fund, with revenues $42.3 billion higher than forecast the previous year. He said the budget would add $7.3 billion to reserves and pay down $11.8 billion in long-term pension obligations over the coming years. Education funding reaches a record $27,418 per student, universal transitional kindergarten is fully funded, and the school meals program continues. He also proposed unifying policy-making by the State Board of Education and the Department of Education so the State Superintendent of Public Instruction can align policy from early childhood through college.
On jobs and construction, Newsom said California had added 600,000 apprenticeship and earn-and-learn opportunities, surpassing ahead of schedule the goal of 500,000 by 2029, and that $109 billion in infrastructure work was under way across more than 28,000 projects employing over 200,000 people. He said he would ask the Legislature to reauthorize the CalCompetes tax credit program for another five years.
Housing and homelessness were another focus. Newsom said early data showed the number of unsheltered homeless people in California dropped 9% in 2025, the first such drop in a decade and a half, with Los Angeles down 10.3% and Riverside County down 19%. He said he had signed 61 housing reform bills the previous year, and that in the coming weeks he would work with the Legislature to combat institutional investors buying up homes by the hundreds and thousands, through stronger oversight and enforcement and potentially changes to the state tax code. He also noted that the state's CalRx generic drug label had launched insulin at $11 a pen the previous week, and that California's uninsured rate had fallen to 6.4%, among the nation's lowest.
On public safety and disasters, Newsom said homicide rates in California cities had fallen to their lowest levels in decades: Oakland the lowest since 1967, Los Angeles the lowest since 1966 and San Francisco the lowest since 1954. He reminded listeners that the Los Angeles fires one year earlier, between January 7 and 22, burned 48,000 acres, took 31 lives and destroyed more than 16,000 structures; he said Los Angeles had completed the fastest debris removal in American history and the state had committed $2.5 billion to recovery.
Source: Office of the Governor of California
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于美国加利福尼亚州萨克拉门托市的加州议会大厦正面，州情咨文在此发表（资料照片）。Andre m 摄，CC BY-SA 3.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The front of the California State Capitol in Sacramento, California, where the address was delivered (file photo). Photo by Andre m, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
