In what may be the last act of a political career spanning more than four decades, Jerry Brown will begin his fourth and final term as governor uniquely positioned to build his legacy as California’s longest-serving chief executive.
On Wednesday morning in the Capitol, he sketched out an agenda that casts him as both an expert technician, tweaking government to be more efficient and effective, and a big thinker, transforming the state’s infrastructure and combating climate change. Much of his fourth term will be dedicated to unfinished business, such as pushing forward with the long-delayed $68-billion bullet train.
He’s also examining possible changes in his criminal justice policies, which have diverted low-level offenders to county jails rather than placing them in state prisons. And he wants stricter rules to make California more reliant on renewable energy sources, part of a broader effort to combat climate change.
At the same time, Brown pledged to keep a tight grip on the state’s finances, aided by voters’ passage Tuesday of Proposition 2, a constitutional amendment requiring money to be saved in a rainy-day fund.
“I’m going to try and do everything I can to keep the state in balance,” Brown said. “But I also want to build things.”
He added: “It is a balance between holding my foot on the brake while pushing my other foot on the accelerator. It’s definitely paradoxical.”
Brown will face a series of challenges as he presses forward.
There’s vocal opposition to a $25-billion proposal for massive tunnels under the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, a project the governor has pitched as crucial to the state’s water system.
The temporary tax hikes voters approved in 2012 are set to begin expiring in 2016, costing the state some of the income that helped erase perennial budget deficits. Democrats failed to win a two-thirds majority in the Legislature, which could make it tougher to push some proposals through.
And in Washington, Tuesday’s election left Republicans in complete control of Congress, imperiling efforts to secure more federal funding for the bullet train.
Nonetheless, Brown is in a stronger position than “any politician in the country,” said Barbara O’Connor, professor emeritus of political communication at Cal State Sacramento.
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