Jerry Brown faced a debt of $26 billion when he was elected Governor of California in 2010. Two years into his four year term Mr. Brown has proudly declared the deficit is erased.
Not only is Governor Brown saying the budget is balanced, he predicts that California will have a money surplus in the next few years.
His exact words:
“The deficit is gone. For the next four years we are talking about a balanced budget. We are talking about living within our means. This is new. This is a breakthrough.”
Brown went on to say that by 2014 California could see a surplus of $21.5 million.
Despite the announcement not everyone is as optimistic as the Governor. According to the New York Times an “independent legislative watchdog” determined its own version of the budget and pointed to factors including “severe cuts in federal assistance, that could push California back into difficulty.”
The group claims that California is still $1.9 billion in debt, which is still pretty miraculous compared to $26 billion just two years ago.
During his declaration Governor Brown stressed the importance of withholding the urge to increase spending again:
“We have to live within the means we have; otherwise we get to that situation where you get red ink and you go back to cuts. I want to avoid the booms and the bust, the borrow and the spend, where we make the promise and then we take back.”
For Jerry Brown this is a major victory. After recently finishing treatments for prostate cancer he hopes the rest of the nation can look to his perseverance and California’s surprising recovery as an example of how to rebuild a broken economy the right way.
Here’s a video discussing Governor Brown’s state budget plan:
Are you as optimistic about Governor Jerry Brown regarding California’s economic future?
