FRESNO, CA (KMJ) – Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. delivered his 16th and final – State of the State address today.
The Governor was optimistic; “Simply put – California is prospering.”
In his remarks, the Governor pointed to a number of far-reaching, bipartisan measures passed in recent years – from pension and workers’ compensation reform to the Water Bond, Rainy Day Fund and the Cap-and-Trade Program – that demonstrate “some American governments can actually get things done.”
Governor Brown defended two controversial projects – hyping up high speed rail; “I like trains, and I like high-speed trains even better. So did the voters in 2008 when they approved the bond.”
He brushed off HSR overages saying; “We got that one covered.”
He says he’s still behind building one tunnel of the twin tunnels project -now in limbo.
Governor Brown also recognized the efforts of firefighters, first responders and volunteers who “answered the call to help their fellow neighbors” this year and the “profound and growing challenge” of extreme weather and fires in California.
The Governor speaking of the wildfires that ravaged the state said; “We have to learn to get along with nature,” saying we must innovate to create shelter and technology. He wants to convene a task force to review the way forests are managed to suggest ways to reduce the devastation of fires.
Governor Brown called out President Trump for his policies on climate change. The Governor warned that “our world, our way of life, our system of governance” are all at “immediate and genuine risk,” citing “endless new weapons systems, growing antagonism among nations, the poison in our politics, climate change” and the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists “Doomsday Clock” moving 30 seconds closer to catastrophe,
Brown called “for courage, for imagination and for generous dialogue” from Californians.
While he spoke of the bounty and opportunities of California, for Valley farmers listening – nowhere in the speech was a mention of agriculture.
Click below to listen to the report by KMJ’s Liz Kern:
