Jerry Brown State Of The State Address Touts Calls For Both Reform And Restraint

Capping off a year of stunning legislative and electoral success, California Governor Jerry Brown struck a hopeful but resolute tone at his annual State of the State address in Sacramento on Thursday morning.

"The message this year is clear: California has once again confounded our critics," he said, opening his approximately 15-minute speech. "We have brought, in just two years, a solid and enduring budget and, by God, we're going to keep it that way for years to come."

The governor commended the state's legislature (now with Democratic super-majorities in both houses) for making the "courageous" choices to cut back on spending that, along with a tax increase passed by voters last November, is credited with putting California's budget into the black for the first time in over a decade.

Even so, Brown urged restraint. "We have promises to keep and the most important one is the one we made to the people if Proposition 30 passed--that we would guard jealously the money temporarily made available," he continued. "Which means living within our means and not spending what we don’t have."

In his typically erudite, free-flowing style, Brown's speech referenced Judge Oliver Wendell Holmes, Joseph (as in Technicolor Dreamcoat), Donald Rumsfeld's "known unknowns/unknown unknowns," Irish poet William Butler Yeats, Franklin Roosevelt, the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Spanish colonial officer Jose de Galvez, the concept of "subsidiarity," land-grant colleges, the People's Republic of China, San Diego-based wireless technology firm Qualcomm, French Renaissance author Michel de Montaigne and The Little Engine The Could.

The Governor spoke about the need to strive for clarity in creating regulations, especially when it comes to education. "Lay the Ten Commandments next to the education code," Brown said over a sudden outburst of laughter and catcalls, "and you'll see how far we diverged in approach and content from that which forms the basis of our legal system."

Check out how the Governor's speech was received among California politicos:

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"Thanks to the actions of the Governor, the Legislature, and the people of California, our state is clearly heading in the right direction. Jobs are being created and our economy has significantly improved. While we should not go on a spending spree, we should begin to restore critical services that were decimated in the past several budgets. I am extremely pleased to see the Governor's commitment to our public universities and his declaration that tuition hikes are off the table." -State Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco)

"Governor Brown's tunnels plan is not the answer to our water crisis. We need to pursue less expensive alternatives that supply southern communities with quality water without devastating Delta farmers and families. Also, while our economy is showing some signs of recovery and there are stories to celebrate, California still has the third highest unemployment rate in the nation and Central Valley families suffer even more. I wish the Governor gave a more detailed plan for spurring job creation, but I'm pleased that he at least wants to reform CEQA and provide more certainty to businesses." - Assemblywoman Kristin Olsen (R-Modesto)

"I join the Governor in his call for fiscal restraint, but neither can we be afraid to be bold in our vision for California. We cannot spend money that we don't have, and we won't. As the economy grows, we will develop smart strategies to pay down debt, to build-up our reserves, and also to begin restoring what's been lost when the opportunity is there to do so." -State Senate Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento)

"It's clear that the Legislature must do more on the issue of job creation. Republicans have long been the lone voices in Sacramento urging lawmakers to make private sector job creation a priority again. While it has been encouraging to see the Governor and the majority party talk about how overregulation is hurting jobs, now is the time for us to finally begin moving in the right direction. I am hopeful that we can work across party lines this year to pass reforms to make our state more competitive for jobs and get people back to work." - Assembly Republican Leader Connie Conway (R-Tulare)

"Today, the Governor wasn't so much kicking the can down the road as he was hiding the can entirely. And while we're glad he embraced a number of key Republican proposals, there's still no plan to create jobs. If you're unemployed, you want action, not rhetoric. His bold proclamations of an economic turnaround conveniently ignored the facts: our cities are going bankrupt because they can't pay off pension obligations, 4.4 million taxpayers have left the state since 1998 while job creators are fleeing the worst business climate in the nation, and continuing government waste and abuse undermines any promise of fiscal restraint. It's time for a reality check." - California Republican Party chair Tom Del Beccaro

Everyone loves a good comeback story and California certainly has a good story to tell. Governor Brown has stoked renewed excitement in California's future, while keeping us grounded on the many challenges we still face - from simplifying our onerous regulatory environment to restoring the luster of our K-12 and higher education systems to maintaining strong fiscal discipline. Economic growth and job creation must be among our top priorities and Governor Brown acknowledged that we can sometimes be our own worst enemy when it comes to providing a strong climate for business success. We are excited to be partnering with Gov. Brown to reopen California's trade offices in China this spring and we are eager to - as the Governor said - to continue confounding the critics of California's capacity for renewal, innovation and progress. -Jim Wunderman, CEO of the Bay Area Council

"We commend Governor Brown for the principles laid out today in his State of the State address. Governor Brown's speech focused on his highest priority which is to put the state on sound fiscal footing and to continue to live within our means. The Governor highlighted education, economic development, international trade, CEQA reform, and transportation financing all of which, along with a balanced budget, will help create needed certainty for California employers and should be an incentive for growing companies to look to California as a place to expand. California's businesses look forward to working together with Governor Brown to move our state forward." - California Chamber of Commerce

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California Prison Population: Jerry Brown Challenges Inmate Cap

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Reducing California's inmate population further to meet a federal order would endanger public safety and require the state to ignore its own sentencing laws, Gov. Jerry Brown warned Tuesday as he challenged judges to reject those options.

After years of changes, the Democratic governor said California would have to grant shorter sentences to inmates convicted of violent or serious felonies to meet the court's mandate.

He also called for restoring the state's authority over its prison system, vowing to take that battle to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary.

The prison population cap was imposed in 2009 after federal judges blamed crowding for dismal conditions that violated inmates' constitutional rights and resulted in the death of an average of one inmate a week due to neglect or poor care.

The judges gave the state until June to reduce the population of California's 33 adult prisons by about 33,000 inmates, to a total of 110,000 inmates.

"Under protest we're offering some options for further release. But make no mistake about it: Releasing prisoners who were convicted of serious and dangerous crimes is not in the public interest," Brown said at a Capitol news conference where he called for the judges to rescind the population cap order.

California already is sending thousands of less-serious offenders to local jails instead of state prisons under a 14-month-old state law designed to reduce crowding and prison spending. But the state is still set to fall short of the court-imposed population cap.

"It's not a smart idea or a sound idea to add further to the burden of the counties," Brown said.

Brown's administration said in court documents filed overnight Monday that it could comply with the court's current population cap only if the federal court waives numerous state laws and "orders the outright early release of inmates serving prison terms for serious and violent felonies."

The plan includes granting early release credits to "second strike" inmates who have serious prior convictions, the state said. State sentencing laws would also have to be changed, and inmates who would normally serve nine months or less in state prison would have to spend their time in county jails.

The state also could lower the threshold for sending inmates to firefighting camps, expand work furlough, restitution centers and alternative custody programs, and keep more inmates in private prisons in other states.

Attorneys representing inmates' welfare said the state could adopt those changes without endangering the public, while saving money.

"Incarceration is the most expensive of all the options for taking care of people in the criminal justice system," said Michael Bien, one of the lead attorneys for inmates.

Attorneys also argued in their court filing that, while conditions have improved, inmates still are needlessly dying of neglect and mentally ill inmates go untreated.

Brown's reasoning also drew swift criticism from reform groups.

"Rather than implement the kinds of sentencing reforms that would significantly reduce the number of people needlessly behind bars in California, Gov. Brown has instead committed to business as usual," said Allen Hopper, director of criminal justice and drug policy for the American Civil Liberties Union of California.

Spending more money on prisons means less money for other needs such as public schools, he said in an email.

Brown argued that the conditions that led to the court oversight – extremely poor medical and mental health care for inmates – have been solved and prisoners now receive care exceeding constitutional levels.

Brown ended a 2006 emergency proclamation by former Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that let the state send thousands of inmates to private prisons in other states. Brown's move cleared the way for them to be returned to California starting in July.

"California is a powerful state. We can run our own prisons. And by God, let those judges give us our prisons back. We'll run them right," Brown said.

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