New governor, new times for California
Sunday night Governor Jerry Brown quietly slipped into a downtown restaurant to join myself and a group of other Senators at a welcoming dinner for new members. He spent the evening with us legislators discussing the new green economy and, in a move guaranteed to capture my heart, spent nearly half an hour chatting with my daughter about her legal studies.
The point is, the evening wasn’t about Jerry Brown, it was about the future of California, our beloved golden state.
Sunday evening represents a bold contrast with the last six years of Governor Schwarzenegger, which has been all sound and fury with little substance. And unfortunately often the substance that did exist was mean, petty, and personal. Even now in his last moments as Governor, he’s attempting to strong-arm Legislators into serving up the state to his blue pencil.
Now that the 2011-12 Legislature has been organized, it is time to look to California’s future. We have an enormous deficit, but no worse than many other states. Our economy is still one of the largest and innovative in the world. We still have a world class education system and a new generation of students embracing a high-tech, information-saturated world unimaginable to us a generation ago. It is incumbent upon us to responsibly address our shortfalls and continue to empower that which makes us golden, Californians themselves.
Happily, it will no longer be about ego in the Governor’s Office, now it is about California. Let’s get to work.
