Jerry Brown, Governor of California
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Dannel Malloy, Governor of Connecticut
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On the other hand, Connecticut with a population of about 3.5 million has a $3.5 Billion deficit (in the $40.1 Billion dollar budget two year budget); the shortfall is only one-sixth of next year's budget
Jerry Brown is the 39th governor of California (and at age 73, the eldest to be sworn in as governor); he just started his new term in 2011; he previously served as the 34th governor from 1975-1983. He was California Secretary of State from 1971-1975, served as Mayor of Oakland from 1999-2007 and Attorney General of California from 2007-2111. He graduated from University of California at Berkeley after leaving a Jesuit seminary on the way to becoming a priest.
After college, he went on to earn a law degree from Yale University.
Dan Malloy is the 88th Governor of Connecticut and just stared his first term earlier this year. Previously, he was Mayor of Stamford from 1995-2009 the longest serving Mayor. He earned his degree magna cum laude from Boston College and then studied the law at Boston College Law School. He served as Assistant District Attorney in Brooklyn, New York from 1980-1984.
Under his mayoral administration, he focused on reducing crime so that currently, Stamford ranks as the 9th safest city in the nation and the third safest in the Northeast. on the other hand, the city of Oakland, California has one of the five highest violent crime rates in the country.
How is each state leader approaching the reduction of the deficit and restoring a balanced state budget?
According to a recent New York Times magazine article, Jerry Brown's Last Stand, Brown will be eliminating a" $26.6 Billion shortfall in state revenues with equal measures of spending cuts--to public schools, higher education, health care programs for the elderly, economic -redevelopment funds for communities -and extension of modest surcharge on the state's income tax (0.25 percent), sales tax (1 percent) and automobile registration (0.5 percent) that would otherwise expire."
According to the same article, Brown has signed over $10 Billion in cuts into law. He declared that if need be he will enact further spending cuts and would not 'paper over' the shortfall with methods of "fiscal trickery." Also on the agenda are reductions in pension benefits for union workers; indeed this spring, Brown took heat for "negotiating agreements with California unions ...that fell short of winning the concessions he had promised and that fiscal analysts say are critical for his state's long-term health."
What worries everybody in California is just how deep the cuts will be. There is no plan B, if he does not get what he wants the first time around, the cuts will continue until he has reached his goal. He will "starve the beast" --the idea being that with no tax increases, the government service will shrink to such an extant that the public will agree to any measures--including tax increases to rescue the beast.
Good luck, Governor- especially in the light of the US Supreme Court's decision, announced on May 24, that the state must clear up to 46, 000 inmates from their overcrowded jails.
How Governor Malloy of Connecticut is dealing with so many of these issues in sealing an agreement of substantial concessions from 'Big Unions" will be dealt with in Part II of this Tale that haunts governors in just about every state in the Union.
Indeed the slashing of bloated state budgets may be the key to saving our Union, our peace of mind, our precious American way of life of freedom as we know it.
Tighten the belt America-- we are collectively in for dramatic adjustments to our 'spend and spend and spend like there is no tomorrow' mentality.
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