I met Governor Brown in the 1970s, around the time he banned the short-handled hoe, the tool that crippled California farm workers by forcing them to toil long hours stooped in the field. During this period in California history, we witnessed Governor Brown, In the words of the California Teachers Association, serve California's residents through the "creation of 1.9 Million jobs, cleaner air quality in the state, creation of the California Conservation Corp, and oh yes, balance the state budget and manage to create a surplus doing it." While discussing with a Los Angeles busines woman the possibility of the State eliminating services because it lacks money, she reminded me the Governor must not only work with the Legislature and oversee the administration of state departments, but must do so with a consciousness of the human factor, the lives of the millions of Californians who are fighting to do the best they can to provide homes, food and clothing for their families, and once in a while have a few dollars to go to the movies, a ball game or afford gas to visit grandparents or brothers and sisters. A curtain of pessimism threatens to fall across the State; California does not have the money so the state cannot pay to educate our children or provide police and fire protection. If California does not have money obtained through taxation, it cannot provide services we need. You cannot spend money you don't have. California could continue to pay its bills by borrowing, leaving the debt to our children and grandchildren. Unlike the federal government, California cannot print money. However, given his history, Governor Brown will overcome the doom and gloom of the pessimists, and with the people's help, enable Californians to continue the life we experienced when Jerry Brown was governor during the 1970's and 80's.
In the 1970's, over vociferous opposition, Governor Brown showed a commitment to improve the lives of all people; he encouraged development of car pool lanes, recycling of trash, protection of the air we breathe, and enabled more than 100,000 unemployed youth escape the desperate city streets and develop their strengths working with the Conservation Corps to protect and improve our environment. Through his honesty and straight-forward approach Governor Brown solved problems through novel and untried ventures; he incurred union criticism when he limited pay increases to government employees; he overcame a seemingly insurmountable labor problem when, after a summer of turmoil in California fields, the arrest of thousands and the killing of several farm workers, he brought together unions and the agribusiness industry and obtained peace in the fields through enactment of a law enabling farm workers to join together and negotiate with their employers, a law that existed nowhere else in the United States, the Agricultural Labor Relations Act.
The doom-and-gloom pessimists should not forget that Jerry is the son of a governor who, without creating an insurmountable budget deficit, built low-cost universities for all students across the state and helped protect farmers, and the farm workers who depend on the farmers for a job, from the recurring droughts and floods through the development of a statewide water plan. Jerry Brown's forward thinking is the product of growing up with Edmund G. (Pat) Brown as his father, Bernice Layne Brown as his mother and Kathleen Brown his sister. Like his father might have done, shortly after being sworn in as Governor of California, Jerry joined the poor and not so poor to share hot dogs while listening to Mariachis outside the State Capitol. Just-sworn-in Governor Brown was listening to the concerns of each of us, Latinos, African-Americans, Asians and Whites, who are middle class, poor or rich. For over 30 years Jerry Brown has been acutely aware of the effect of state decisions on the lives of the people of California. Now, Governor Brown faces the largest problem he has confronted, the critical budget deficit.
Californians must make a choice to either reduce government spending through reduction of services or to extend the 2009 tax supplement about to expire. If the people decide that paying lower taxes outweighs the government's services, like education of our children and protection of our communities, the doom-and-gloom pessimists will prevail. When the voters recognize that continuation of necessary government services requires them continue to pay a few more dollars in taxes, California will continue to be one of the most prosperous places to live in the world. Every dollar spent at the local grocery store multiplies when it is passed on as pay to the clerk, the farm worker and the truck drivers who brings the goods to the store. The dollar that is repeatedly passed on becomes many dollars. People must have the dollar to spend at the store to initiate this multiplication. Private business or government provides this dollar by paying employees. When there are many unemployed, as there are now, the government must use taxes to enable the unemployed to initiate this multiplication process. If California voters choose to pay less in taxes when the 2009 level expires next summer, the state will be unable to even provide the necessary services like education of our children and police and fire protection, and the unemployed will be unable to spend money that multiples once spent. The people must choose.
This summer, Californians will be asked whether they want to live with reduced services or maintain the 2009 tax level. Governor Brown has shown he knows how to solve problems. He has shown he is honest. He has shown he cares that each of us is must be remembered when the state acts. He cares about our jobs. He cares that our families have a home. He cares about our children's education. Throughout his life he has lived his life in California and through his policies and programs has shown that he can bring opposing factions together and pull us out of the chaos and confusion that seems to flow from Sacramento. Now he has developed a budget that limits services but carries on California's prosperity. With the legislature, Governor Brown can do it, but he will need the help of all of us when it comes to a choice between continued prosperity or lower taxes and the dire consequences the pessimists threaten.