Posted on 06/09/2012 8:12:25 PM PDT by SmithL
As Gov. Jerry Brown barrels ahead with high-speed trains, he could find that his quest for a legacy derails the November tax measure he desperately needs to repair the state budget.
For his entire political career, Brown has lived in the shadows of his visionary father, Pat, the governor from 1959-67 who brought us the State Water Project and the master plan for California higher education.
The younger Brown has always been a big thinker in search of his own legacy. But, after his first gubernatorial tenure, from 1975-83, he was best remembered as Gov. Moonbeam, the ideas guy who could never deliver, and for his appointment of Rose Bird to the state Supreme Court, which backfired when voters recalled the chief justice and two of her Brown-appointed colleagues in 1986.
We were told during the 2010 gubernatorial election that Brown, then 72, had politically and personally matured, that he was more down to earth, that he had learned from his intervening years in local government as mayor of Oakland.
He promised an end to budget gimmickry, a vow he has only partially fulfilled, and to return California to fiscal balance. As part of that plan, he will ask voters in November for permission to raise needed taxes.
To bolster his case, the governor who slept on the floor of a sparsely furnished Sacramento apartment and drove around in a Plymouth during his last tenure has demonstrated austerity this time by taking away half of the state-employee cellphones and asking workers to accept hour and salary reductions.
But he undermines the frugality image by continuing to champion a financially indefensible plan to link the major metropolitan areas of the state with high-speed rail. In his search for his own legacy, he risks voter support for his tax measure.
(Excerpt) Read more at contracostatimes.com ...
CA: High-Speed Rail Job or Bust!
Gov. Pat Brown, Moonbeam’s dad, was a crappy governor. The education system in California prior to 1960 was among the better achievments in the state, and that socialist clown destroyed it.
I distinctly remember the infamous “New Math” being forced on kids like me in 1962-1964; it was an utter failure.
When Ronald Reagan was Governor of California, from 1967 to 1975, he brought the state out of debt only to see that rescue squandered by Edmund Gerald “Jerry” Brown in his first term as Governor, elected 1975.
The Browns, father and son, have been a pox on California.
GROOOVEY...... RAISE TAXES.... TO PAY FOR IT JERRY....
Jerry Brown and his fellow Democrats can’t balance their budget, but they are determined to build a bullet train, having no money to pay for said train. Go figure.
People drive in CA.
“The Browns, father and son, have been a pox on California.”
Let’s not forget his sister Kathleen. She too tried to be Governor and lost badly. She was kinda like Teddy Kennedy’s wife where politics were concerned.
Allowing government to extract more cash from the people’s pockets, when they have shown no ability what so ever to control their appetite, would be “business as usual”. Like increasing the debt ceiling at the Federal level. The next time a Republican votes for insanity should be their last. Lets just say such action needs to be overcome by reality.
HIGH SPPED RAIL IS A CODE WORK FOR BAILOUT
NOONE is going to get out of their cars in California!! Bankruptcy ahead!!
The article's title isn't supported by the story. Gov. Moonbeam doesn't have a legacy to "risk" ...... and his "legacy" will be the bankruptcy of the State of California, if he keeps pushing his father's politics, whether he flushes billions on "high-speed" rail (as opposed to "low-speed" commuter air, I suppose?) or not.
Pat Brown, the author claims, was the father of California's education regime. If that's true, then Pat Brown has a lot to answer for, that this article doesn't address but voters will have to.
Likewise, the last I heard of Pat Brown's ideas on water development, people in northern California can't take a drink from the streams in their backyards, without breaking state laws. California FReepers will correct me if I'm wrong.
Obama threatened Gov Scott of Fl that if Scott denied the train, he would give the money to another state. Im glad Scott didn’t bite. This project is proving to be way more expensive for the state.
All aboard The Jerry Brown Special! Here she comes!
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