Jerry Brown, California politicians lay out grim realities
Gov.-elect Jerry Brown and some of the state’s leading politicians laid out a panorama of grim realities as California seeks a way out of its unrelenting economic crisis, emphasizing that gimmicks can no longer be used.
Brown, 25 days away from assuming the governorship, took the extraordinary step of calling hundreds of lawmakers and local officials together to confront what will likely be the defining issue of his term.
One-time solutions such as federal stimulus funds and temporary tax hikes are not options to fill in gaps left by the state’s plummeting revenues, Brown said during the two-hour summit.
And, he said, lawmakers must step out of their ideological comfort zones to deliver results to Californians.
“The crisis, I think, will open the way to solutions because our backs are against the wall,” he said. “I believe this breakdown will, of necessity, pave the way to a breakthrough because we can’t keep going on the way we have. It’s getting worse. Beneath the differences there is a zone of potential common agreement. That’s where I’ll focus in the coming months.”