SACRAMENTO — Ramping up for a “pandemic-induced recession,” California Governor Gavin Newsom said Friday he’s assembled a prominent cast of business leaders and advisers — including the heads of Apple and Disney, former governors and recent presidential candidate Tom Steyer — to reignite the state’s economy.

Newsom says the 80-member task force will collaborate on a “safe restart” plan focused on boosting regions most directly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Steyer and Newsom’s chief of staff Ann O’Leary will chair the “Task Force on Business and Jobs Recovery” with other members to include Disney Chairman Bob Iger, Apple CEO Tim Cook, former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen and four former governors.

“What I have done is asked and tasked some of the best and brightest minds that we could source,” Newsom said. “We are blessed to have the kind of human resources that only a nation-state could be afforded.”

The announcement comes one week after Newsom’s top financial adviser resigned unceremoniously, and one day after the state’s legislative analyst warned lawmakers that recession had already arrived to the nation’s most populous state.

In a matter of weeks, California has moved from the safety net of a $17 billion surplus to a full-blown financial emergency. More than 3 million people have filed for unemployment over the last month, ending the state’s impressive 120-month stretch of job growth and causing financial experts to predict the economic downturn could take several years to recover from.

Fresh off an upstart bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, Steyer will slide in as the face of Newsom’s economic task force. The billionaire businessman from San Francisco said he will scour community groups, environmental activists, philanthropists and labor unions for advice.

“We will try to come up with a recovery plan that is worthy of California’s past, pushes us to a better future and remedies some of the injustices this COVID-19 pandemic has revealed in our society,” said Steyer, who won’t be paid for his new role.

A bipartisan group of living former governors — Pete Wilson, Gray Davis, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jerry Brown — are also among the leaders who have agreed to guide the reopening of the state’s $3 trillion economy. Newsom said he’s talked with his predecessors throughout the crisis and they’ve advised him to “do the right thing and don’t play politics.”

“They get it because they’ve been in these positions and they want to see something good happen for the state of California,” Newsom said.

Friday’s announcement builds on a 6-point reopening plan Newsom outlined earlier in the week. The reopening strategy hinges on improved testing and tracing capabilities, the development of therapeutics or vaccines and the reshaping of businesses and schools to conform to the era of social distancing.

Newsom tempered the excitement of the new task force by noting that 95 Californians died Thursday from the novel coronavirus, the highest daily death toll yet. So far 985 Californians have died from the virus, though the number of patients in intensive care dropped slightly over the last day.

“We have bent the curve, it has begun to flatten, but again it’s not moving in the direction that we are ready to ultimately celebrate,” Newsom said.

Aiming to relieve workers on the forefront of the crisis, California lawmakers on Friday called for new workplace protections and enhanced medical benefits for health care workers and emergency responders.

Under Assembly Bill 664, eligible employees who are infected with the novel coronavirus wouldn’t have to pay hospital bills and additionally qualify for disability indemnity and death benefits. As of Thursday, health care workers made up over 10% of the state’s confirmed cases.

“These workers not only show up to protect us, but they are asked to go toward the risk while most of us are asked to stay away from it,” said Assemblyman and former law enforcement officer Jim Cooper. “They are heroes and should have the peace of mind that they will be taken care of if they fall ill while providing their vital services to the public.”

— By Nick Cahill, CNS