Capitol Weekly’s Top 100: Joe Stephenshaw

2. Joe Stephenshaw

The budget is almost always the most important thing in any governor’s world, and in a state like this one where the budget is an annual feast or famine proposition there is a serious need for a cool, calm and collected Finance Director. Since 2022, Joe Stephenshaw has been that person. The Director of the California Department of Finance and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s top budget advisor, Stephenshaw is used to working under intense pressure from both the state’s often-chaotic fiscal conditions and his demanding boss. By all accounts he handles each of those circumstances well. That has been especially necessary this year as the state dealt with a $12 billion budget deficit. This was something entirely foreign to the hordes of newbie lawmakers, but it was hardly Stephenshaw’s first rodeo. He served as Staff Director for the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee from 2017 to 2022, so he was well aware of the epic fluctuations in the state’s tax revenues. We have to think he also was well aware of his current boss’s temperament. So hey, eyes wide open and all that, right? Thankfully, his quiet, calm demeanor is the perfect balance to the perpetual rolling thunder of the governor’s office.

Updated Aug. 26, 2025