2018 State of State: Was Gov. Brown’s Victory Lap Deserved?

January 2018 – California Governor Jerry Brown on Thursday, January 25, 2018 delivered his 16th and final State of the State address, jabbing at U.S. President Donald Trump while extolling his own perceived successes rebuilding the budget, boosting education and fighting climate change.

However, he also had to devote much of his address to defend his marquee projects and policies that will likely define legacy: the state’s beleaguered bullet train, his Delta tunnel plan and criminal justice changes reducing California’s prison population. And he vowed to fight for the state’s very controversial gas tax hike even as a campaign to repeal it heats up.

He distracted some of his policy failings by attacking the current White House.  Brown said “Our world, our way of life, our system of governance – all are at immediate and genuine risk,” referring to Trump’s environmental policies, his rhetoric over North Korea’s nuclear program and other issues.

The attempt was to take a victory lap and point to his legacy, however a number of issues will need to be addressed before that can be clearly seen.

• Economy – The state is still suffering from economic and leadership failings.  When Brown was inaugurated in 2011, California was still in economic free-fall from the Great Recession, and the state’s budget deficit was $27 billion. Brown’s final budget, which he released earlier this month, features a $6.1 billion surplus, mainly due to higher tax rates. The state’s official unemployment rate is 4.3 percent, though the unofficial rate of unemployment and underemployment is much higher likely exceeding 11%.  (In addition, the workforce is experiencing unprecedented levels of age discrimination.)
• Natural Occurrances – He warned of continuing devastation from natural disasters, predicting that the floods, fires and mudslides that have ravaged the state in the last year would only get worse with “climate change.”
• High-Speed Rail – The San Francisco-to-Los Angeles high-speed rail train he’s championed has been mired in lawsuits and cost overruns — and he’s had to scale down his $17 billion plan to tunnel under the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta in the face of political opposition.
• Gas Tax – Brown also vowed to protect several other of his signature policies that are under threat, including last year’s 12-cent gas tax increase to fund road repairs.
• Water–  Brown said that the state will use funding from Proposition 1, a massive water bond approved during the height of the drought in 2014, to build new dams, reservoirs and groundwater storage. Last week, his California Water Commission alarmed water agencies when its staff said that none of the 11 projects that have applied for $2.7 billion in the measure’s funding scored well on cost-benefit tests, leading to fears that none or only a handful of projects would be funded.

Governor Brown did not mention several of the state’s other biggest challenges, including sky-high housing costs and rising homelessness rates. While supportive of recent women’s marches, he also failed to directly address the sexual harassment scandals that have gripped the state Legislature.

Assembly Republican Leader Brian Dahle (R-Bieber) said the state was too expensive, and the budget revenues have only improved because of higher taxes.  He stated that California is “dying from a thousand cuts as business owners in California even though the government’s doing great,”  He stated that his colleagues continue to oppose the outrageously expensive high speed rail project and a recent massive increase in gasoline taxes.