Governor Jerry Brown State Address

In Governor Jerry Brown’s State of the State address Thursday morning, he said we have much to be thankful for in a world that is profoundly uncertain, including the rising fear of terrorism, and global economic turmoil. He stressed the need to dedicate surging one-time tax revenues to the state’s rainy day fund, noting that another downturn in the economy could be just around the corner. “We have to bite the bullet and enact new fees and taxes for this goal”.

California Gov. Jerry Brown presents his annual State of the State address to a joint session of the Legislature, Thursday, Jan. 21, 2016, in Sacramento, Calif. Seated are Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, left, and Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles. Brown says 13.5 million Californians have been enrolled in Medical since the ACA was implemented.

Brown called the water bond “one of the bright spots in our contentious politics” and said that initiative, combined with the California Water Action Plan – a planning framework for elected officials, agencies, tribe and other stakeholders – “establishes a solid program to deal with the drought and the longer-term challenge of using our water wisely”.

The governor called for taking $2 billion from the state’s budget surplus to pay for fixing roads, levees and state buildings.

The governor also touted enrollment in medical and covered California, calling it a historic achievement in providing health security to those who couldn’t otherwise afford it. At the same time, I do have concerns about the Governor’s desires to raise taxes on California families to pay for transportation infrastructure commitments.

“The thought that we’re even talking about new taxes when we have $7 billion more, I think is wrong”, said Assembly Republican Leader Chad Mayes. Republican “solutions to lift people out of poverty involve job training and incentives that create local jobs”. California has a very progressive but volatile income tax that provides 70 percent of General Fund revenues. “Rather, I am going to focus on how we pay for the commitments we have already made”.

Mr. Brown, a 77-year-old democrat, is now entering his sixth year as Governor of the Golden State, being focused on initiatives he considers critical, according to The Washington Times. “So we’re not going to go along with that part of the program”.

He’s also still promoting his massive infrastructure projects on high-speed rail and to build twin water tunnels in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

“Unfortunately, Governor Brown insists on moving forward with the Delta tunnels project despite serious environmental concerns raised by numerous organizations including the Environmental Protection Agency which found the plan ‘incomplete with required analysis ‘not yet done, ” says Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, executive director of Restore the Delta. “One way or another, the roads must be fixed”.

He ended by praising the state’s progress in areas such as increasing school funding and combatting the “overarching threat of a warming climate”.

“Difficulties remain and they always will. That’s the human condition”, he said.