Gov. Jerry Brown Urges Fiscal Restraint

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright Jan. 24, 2012
All Rights Reserved.                                         

           Riding a billion dollar-plus surplus, 74-year-old California Gov. Jerry Brown picked up the pieces of where his predecessors, Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic Gov. Gray Davis, failed.   When Brown’s former chief-of-staff Gray Davis got his shot a governor in 1999, no one could have imagined the energy crisis that drove the state into a financial ditch.  Davis sat idly by while out-of-state power brokers fleeced the state into near bankruptcy.  By the time Davis was recalled Nov. 17, 2003, the state was billions in the red, handing Schwarzenegger the unenviable task of preventing California from going broke.  Arnold talked a good game but couldn’t put the state’s fiscal house in order.  It took Brown with his 42-years of state service to help fix California’s broken economy.  With Brown at the helm and with state’s unemployment rate dropping, deficits finally turned to surpluses.

             Brown asked the state’s largely Democratic legislature to show “fiscal restraint,” despite the turnaround that’s given hope to the state’s most costly programs, including education, health care and prisons.  “This means living within our means and not spending what we have,” Brown told the state assembly and senate.  “Fiscal discipline is not the enemy our good intentions but the basis for realizing them,” referring to many of the poorly funded programs awaiting cash infusions from the budget surplus.  While cautioning fiscal restraint, Brown already allocated cash for California’s public schools, community colleges, state universities and U.C. campuses.  Battling skeptics before the state budget turned to surplus, Brown pushed for the new high-speed rail system that would add countless jobs and connect Northern and Southern California.  His priorities mirror forward-looking state goals.

             Instead of passing state bills or ballot measures that lack funding, Brown sought to deliver long-term funding on high-priority items, including education, water, transportation, energy and public parks.  “It’s cruel to lead people on by expanding good programs, only to cut them back when the funding disappears.  This isn’t progress.  It’s not even progressive.  It’s an illusion.  The stop and go, boom and bust serves no one.  We’re not going back there,” Brown told a joint session of the California legislature.  Before spending the surplus, Brown promised a rainy-day fund to assure long-term programs.  He’s watched painfully public education lay-off thousands of public school teachers when the budget was tight.  Brown turned his attention to completing the high-speed rail project, two massive tunnels to divert water from Northern to Southern California and Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

             Brown asked the legislature to fix the unequal distribution of public money to blighted schools.  Instead of equalizing school funding, Brown asked for more money for schools in deprived areas.  “Equal treatment for children in unequal situations in not justice,” asking the state to allocate more funds to districts with higher percentages of poverty and English spoken as-second language.  “California did the impossible,” Brown said, rebounding from near bankruptcy to budget surpluses.  He asked for a special session of the Legislature to deal with President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, due to start in one year.  Sounding more Libertarian, Brown cautioned the legislature against passing more laws.  “Constantly expanding the coercive power of government by adding each year so many minute prescriptions to our already detailed and turgid legal system,” Brown warned.

               Setting priorities for the state, Brown urged the assembly and senate to support and complete the state’s long-overdue water projects, bringing water from the North to the South.  While seen as a boondoggle by the state’s GOP, Brown urged completion of the bullet-train that would add thousands of construction jobs up-an-down the state.  With state tax revenues increasing from higher employment, Jerry plans to use the revenue to offset tuition raises at the Community, State and U.C. campuses.  “I will not let the students become the default financiers of our colleges and universities,” said Brown promising to restore budgets without jeopardizing the rainy-day fund.  Brown also sees the state’s rollout of Obamacare also adding to a robust jobs market.  He expects tax revenues to continue expanding as more Californians are put back to work in a growing U.S. and state economy.

             Brown’s leadership continues to cut across partisan lines, winning plaudits from both sides of the aisle.  After calling for fiscal restraint, Brown received more support from what’s left of the California GOP.  “A lot of common ground between Republicans and the governor,” said Sate Assembly Republican Leaser Connie Conway.  With the state running surpluses, it’s difficult for the State GOP to continue bashing Brown’s priorities.  Water projects, education, high-speed rail, all encourage more businesses to relocate to California.  President Barack Obama should take his cues from Brown on how to manage a disgruntled GOP minority:  Show fiscal restraint but fund the appropriate priorities that encourage business development, especially public works projects improving infrastructure while generating more jobs.  Like Washington, California has benefited from an improving economy.

 John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com.and author of Dodging the Bullet and Operation Charisma.