California Governor Declares State is in Crisis

Thursday, 20 January 2011 21:18

Written by Julius

Governor Jerry Brown, who served as California’s top executive from 1975 to 1983, declared during his state of the state speech (his 8th speech) that the entire state is in a deep crisis and that bold moves and sacrifices must be made. Brown revealed many concerns to California’s state assembly and that there a lots of fiscal challenges that are no less daunting. In reality, California and its people have long been suffering and things have turned badly since the turn of the century. According to Brown, the state has the lowest credit rating among all fifty states as well as an unemployment rate that is higher than the national average.

The governor declared that vision and discipline are needed in order to execute decisions to reform the state’s finances, improve efficiency of governance and eventually pave the way for economic opportunities and job creation to come in. Along the way, Brown is reaching out not just to his fellow Democrats for their cooperation but also Republicans and independents as he stated that it is time to put an end to political bickering and start caring about the people. He stated that his plan on rebuilding California requires the people’s participation and that it would be irresponsible for the state to exclude them.

Brown, who returned to the governor’s office after a hard battle with the Republicans’ Meg Whitman (former eBay CEO) in last November’s expensive election, established a reputation of fiscal conservatism and limits. These elements, he believes, will pave the way for improvements. Recently the governor ordered that 48,000 state employees should return the mobile phones issued to them by the state government.