Jerry Brown Feed

Gov. Jerry Brown gets wide array of support for tax-hike initiative

ned — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 20:42:57 +0000

By Steven Harmon Bay Area News Group

1 February 2012

Early contributions to Gov. Jerry Brown's tax-hike initiative show a wide span of interests are beginning to line up behind it. (More...)

SACRAMENTO -- Early contributions to Gov. Jerry Brown's tax-hike initiative show a wide span of interests are beginning to line up behind it.

In the past two weeks, two business groups -- the Occidental Petroleum Corporation and the American Beverage Association -- pitched in $250,000 apiece to his ballot committee, Californians to Protect Schools, Universities and Public Safety.

The governor has raised $1.7 million as his campaign begins to collect signatures to place the initiative on the November ballot, according to campaign finance reports released Tuesday. No committee has yet been formed to oppose the tax measure.

Gaining the support of business alongside Democrats' traditional labor allies appears to be a key to the governor's strategy, analysts say. The measure would raise about $7 billion by increasing the sales tax by a half-cent and income tax on individuals who make $250,000 or more a year.

Read the entire article here.

Brown's Visionary Side Emerges

ned — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:20:48 +0000

Steve Harmon - San Jose Mercury News

18 January 2012

The two sides of Gov. Jerry Brown's political persona have come into clear view this month. Two weeks ago, it was the austere and pragmatic Brown, as he released his slash-away state budget. But on Wednesday (More...)

SACRAMENTO -- The two sides of Gov. Jerry Brown's political persona have come into clear view this month. Two weeks ago, it was the austere and pragmatic Brown, as he released his slash-away state budget.

But on Wednesday, during his State of the State address in the Assembly chamber, he gave a glimpse of his idealistic, visionary side, providing a full-throated defense of California's high-speed rail plan despite the pummeling it's taken in recent months.

Brown took on critics in his most forceful language to date, noting that naysayers have been wrong about some of the great infrastructure projects of the past.

"The Central Valley Water Project was called a 'fantastic dream' that 'will not work,' " he said. "The master plan for the interstate highway system in 1939 was derided as 'New Deal jitterbug economics.' In 1966, then-Mayor (Wallace) Johnson of Berkeley called BART a 'billion-dollar potential fiasco.'

"Similarly, the Panama Canal was for years thought to be impractical, and Benjamin Disraeli himself said of the Suez Canal: 'Totally impossible to be carried out.' The critics were wrong then, and they're wrong now.''

Brown, in his second State of the State address since returning as governor after a 28-year hiatus, also urged the Legislature to tackle other momentous changes such as pension reform and a new water-infrastructure project. And he made his case for new taxes while insisting that additional budget cuts are necessary.

A blend of the tough, the unpopular and the lofty are what's needed to build "confidence in California as a place to invest and realize one's dreams," he said.

Read the entire article here

Structural Reform: Brown Treads Where Others Have Faltered

ned — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 17:28:54 +0000

By Larry Gerston - NBC Bay Area

11 January 2012

A 12 page document has the potential to make significant changes (read more...)

While Jerry Brown's 2012-2013 budget proposal has grabbed the headlines, another series of proposals has the potential for moving the state in a more efficient direction.

The governor has issued a twelve-page document that advocates reducing the number of state agencies to 10 from the present 12 and eliminating 39 departments, commissions or programs. Some would be folded into existing arrangements, while others would be abolished altogether.

These changes could go a long way toward making California less susceptible to bureaucratic overlap and less vulnerable to the various private interests that seek to penetrate these institutions for their own gains.

Some of Brown's recommendations are substantive, such as merging Caltrans, the DMV, the High-Speed Rail Authority, the CHP, the California Transportation Commission, and the Board of Pilot Commissioners into the Transportation Agency.

Others include the elimination of a handful of the 300 boards and commissions as well as transferring stand alone departments into existing agencies.

Unlike efforts by former governors to trim the edges of California's bureaucratic duplication, the Brown proposal seems thoughtful and purposive.

Read entire story at NBC Bay Area

Gov. Brown's tax proposal enjoys support in poll

ned — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 20:40:29 +0000

Wyatt Buchanan, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau

12 December 2011

Sacramento -- - A strong majority of Californians support Gov. Jerry Brown's plan to raise the sales tax and income taxes on high earners to help close the state's budget deficit, according to a new Public Policy Institute of California poll. (More...)

The poll - an early measurement of a proposal that has far to go until voters can weigh in in November - found that 65 percent of all adults surveyed support his plan, which would increase the sales tax by a half cent and raise taxes on high-income earners, starting with individuals who make more than $250,000 per year.

The poll also found deep concern among state voters about further cuts to K-12 public education and that Californians see their local government services as significantly impacted by multiple years of state budget cuts as lawmakers and the governor have struggled to balance the budget.

These findings come as the Brown administration will announce today what automatic midyear budget cuts will be implemented.

Open Letter to the People of California

ned — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 21:52:48 +0000

4 December 2011

In 2012, let's choose a better path for California. Please read my letter (more...)

A PDF of the letter can be found here. A link to the inititive can be found here.

When I became Governor again -- 28 years after my last term ended in 1983 -- California was facing a $26.6 billion budget deficit. It was the result of years of failing to match spending with tax revenues as budget gimmicks instead of honest budgeting became the norm.

In January, I proposed a budget that combined deep cuts with a temporary extension of some existing taxes. It was a balanced approach that would have finally closed our budget gap.

I asked the legislature to enact this plan and to allow you, the people of California, to vote on it. I believed that you had the right to weigh in on this important choice: should we decently fund our schools or lower our taxes? I don’t know how you would have voted, but we will never know. The Republicans refused to provide the four votes needed to put this measure on the ballot.

Forced to act alone, Democrats went ahead and enacted massive cuts and the first honest on-time budget in a decade. But without the tax extensions, it was simply not possible to eliminate the state’s structural deficit.

The good news is that our financial condition is much better than a year ago. We cut the ongoing budget deficit by more than half, reduced the state’s workforce by about 5500 positions and cut unnecessary expenses like cell phones and state cars. We actually cut state expenses by over $10 billion. Spending is now at levels not seen since the seventies. Our state’s credit rating has moved from “negative” to “stable,” laying the foundation for job creation and a stronger economic recovery.

Unfortunately, the deep cuts we made came at a huge cost. Schools have been hurt and state funding for our universities has been reduced by 25%. Support for the elderly and the disabled has fallen to where it was in 1983. Our courts suffered debilitating reductions.

The stark truth is that without new tax revenues, we will have no other choice but to make deeper and more damaging cuts to schools, universities, public safety and our courts.

That is why I am filing today an initiative with the Attorney General’s office that would generate nearly $7 billion in dedicated funding to protect education and public safety. I am going directly to the voters because I don’t want to get bogged down in partisan gridlock as happened this year. The stakes are too high.

My proposal is straightforward and fair. It proposes a temporary tax increase on the wealthy, a modest and temporary increase in the sales tax, and guarantees that the new revenues be spent only on education. Here are the details:

Millionaires and high-income earners will pay up to 2% higher income taxes for five years. No family making less than $500,000 a year will see their income taxes rise. In fact, fewer than 2% of California taxpayers will be affected by this increase.
There will be a temporary ½ cent increase in the sales tax. Even with this temporary increase, sales taxes will still be lower than what they were less than six months ago.
This initiative dedicates funding only to education and public safety--not on other programs that we simply cannot afford.

This initiative will not solve all of our fiscal problems. But it will stop further cuts to education and public safety.

I ask you to join with me to get our state back on track.