Friday, 11 January 2008 00:12

State of the State Address

Delivering his annual State of the State address before a joint session of the California State Legislature Tuesday, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger asked legislators to work with him to tackle some of California's most pressing challenges, including reforming the state budget system.  "This coming year will test us in very hard ways. In any number of areas, we've tackled politically risky things that no one in the past wanted to touch. To me, this is progress.

And now, we must make progress on another problem that's been put off for many years," said Governor Schwarzenegger. Schwarzenegger called California’s budget process a “binge and purge” system, that is not reasonable or in the best interests of anyone. The governor announced he again would propose a constitutional amendment so that state spending “has some relationship to our revenues." During the speech, the Governor discussed his proposals to reform the state budget system to ensure greater financial stability in the future and addressed why health care reform is critical to fixing the massive budget problem. He also discussed why the current budget challenge does not change California's critical need for infrastructure investment and how the most needed education reforms are still possible. You can read all of the Governor’s proposals at his website: http://gov.ca.gov