IN his address to the state of California, Governor Jerry Brown warned residents about economic downturn, and challenged lawmakers to restrain from spending, despite surpluses in the state budget.
“The challenge is to solve today’s problems without making those of tomorrow even worse,” Brown said on Thursday, Jan. 21 in a speech from the Assembly Chamber in Sacramento. “You are not going to hear me talk today about new programs. Rather, I am going to focus on how we pay for the commitments we have already made.”
True to his word, the California governor stopped short of proposing new state government projects, instead focusing on raising awareness to current issues, including California’s long-standing drought, healthcare, terrorism, worker’s rights and the minimum wage.
Brown, 77, is in the second year of his final term as California governor, with relatively high approval ratings, and about $24 million in his campaign chest, allowing him to factor heavily in ballot measure campaigns this November, before the 2018 elections to succeed him, reported The Sacramento Bee.
Two weeks before the pivotal annual speech, Brown sent a $170.7-billion spending plan budget to the Legislature for the fiscal year beginning July, $5.9 billion more than lawmakers had assumed last summer, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Brown asked state legislators to put an extra payment of $2 billion into reserves or debt repayment, rather than commit it to new programs or expanding it to older ones.
“If we are to minimize the zigzag of spend-cut-spend that this tax system inevitably produces, we must build a very large reserve,” he said, blaming the state for setting aside a “token” amount to pay for billions in pensions and retirement health benefits.
“It is a moral obligation” to address the state’s liability before it jumps into any new commitments, he stressed.
Pushing the Medi-Cal program and Covered California’s healthcare exchange, Brown noted that the state had “wholeheartedly embraced” President Obama’s Affordable Care Act. “This is a historic achievement,” the Democrat governor said, to applause in the Assembly and Senate.
However, he also warned about rising cost of Medi-Cal, which has grown by $23 billion in ‘four years for the state and federal government, SFGate said, while In-home Supportive Services is expected to jump from $2 to $9.2 billion.
The governor also stressed the importance of raising the minimum wage statewide, currently at $10 an hour, to combat income inequality. He has insisted that throughout his terms, he has enacted laws and programs to help those in poverty.
“In the face of this growing inequality, California has not been passive,” he said.
Brown said little about the two major infrastructure projects he is laboring to push forward: the $68 billion high-speed rail system (between Los Angeles and San Francisco), and a $15.5 billion project to divert water from underground tunnels around the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to the southland.
However, he renewed his call for a $77 billion spending plan to be invested in infrastructure (a mix of taxes, fees, and other revenue) to fund road and bridge repairs, office buildings, parks, schools, prisons, and hospitals statewide.
“That means at some point, sooner rather than later, we have to bite the bullet and enact new fees and taxes for this purpose,” Brown said. “Ideology and politics stand in the way, but one way or another the roads must be fixed.”
“It seems a little premature to fix the newest problems with new taxes,” commented Senate Republican leader Jean Fuller (R-Bakersfield), “in a year in which California enjoys unprecedented revenue.”
Sen. Jim Nielsen of Gerber, the top Republican on the Senate budget committee, told The Associated Press that California can fund the fixes from existing revenues.
“It does appear that there’s going to be additional revenues, particularly for transportation,” Nielsen said. “He focused on having to raise taxes for transportation…We’re not going to go along with that part of the program.”
Applauding Brown for his “very clear-eyed focus on maintaining California’s fiscal stability,” Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles) said, “We also believe that we need to make much-needed targeted investments in human capital for those who have been left behind with the resurgence of the economy.”
“We’ve got to make certain investments in the long run that will lift people out of poverty so they can become income earners and contribute to the state coffers.”
After a 20-minute speech, Brown concluded, “Difficulties remain, and they always will. That is the human condition. And finding the right path forward is formidable. But find it we will, as we have in the past and as we will again — with courage and confidence.”
