In his 2012 State of the State speech last month, Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. said California is “on the mend” and laid out an ambitious agenda for economic growth in the year ahead. With jobless rate at a three-year low and a surge in payroll, Governor Brown has every reason to be optimistic about California’s future. Through government downsizing, reducing the cost of government borrowing, and transferring work from state government to local government, California’s $20B structural deficit is now one fourth of what it was last year. To close the remaining gap, Governor Brown will continue to seek voter approval for a temporary tax extension.

In his State of the State Address, Governor Brown set the following eight priorities for 2012:

• Stimulate jobs;
• Build renewable energy;
• Reduce pollution and greenhouse gasses;
• Launch the nation’s only high-speed rail system;
• Reach agreement on a plan to fix the Delta;
• Improve our schools;
• Reform our pensions; and,
• Make sure that prison realignment is working to protect public safety and reduce recidivism.

To stimulate job growth, Governor Brown has pledged to continue helping businesses big and small “navigate the state’s plethora of complex laws and regulations which can discourage investment and job creation.” Under the name GO-BIZ, the business community now has “a point of contact at the highest level.”

To cultivate the renewable energy market, Governor Brown has set a goal of 20,000 megawatts of renewable energy by 2020. According to the Governor, California has granted permits for over 16,000 megawatts of solar, wind, and geothermal energy projects in the past two years alone.

Governor Brown is proud of how California is leading the nation in cleaning up the air, encouraging electric vehicles, and reducing pollution and greenhouse gases. He looks forward to building on the many innovative programs pioneered by the State of California to protect the environment.

While many in both the private and public sectors have dismissed the California high-speed rails project as dead on arrival, Governor Brown remains a strong proponent of this ambitious project aimed to shorten the commute time between Northern and Southern California.

Governor Brown needs cities like Dublin to grow. Governor Brown and his staff are working to “complete the Bay Delta Conservation Plan.” The goal of which is to ensure water for 25 million Californians, which include all the new home communities to be built as part of the Eastern Dublin Specific Plan and beyond, and for millions of acres of farmland as well a hundred thousand acres of new habitat for spawning fish and other wildlife.

Along with a pledge to create transparency, reduce bureaucracy, and simplify complex funding streams for California’s local schools, Governor Brown promises to put California’s public schools in a much stronger position than the one he inherited, as long as the voters pass the temporary tax extension come November.

Finally, Governor Brown acknowledges that the State’s pension and prison system have real problems. On the pension front, Governor Brown calls for a rebalancing of benefits, contributions, and retirement age; on the prison front, the Governor resolves to work closely with sheriffs, police chiefs, probation officers, district attorneys, and local officials to protect public safety and reduce recidivism.

“After the mortgage bubble burst in 2007, California lost a million jobs, much of it driven by the overleveraged construction industry and its financial partners in the under-regulated mortgage industry. The result is a recovery far slower than after the previous six national recessions. But now we are coming back. In 2011, California personal income grew by almost $100 billion and 230,000 jobs were created—a rate much higher than the nation as a whole,” said Governor Brown. All the numbers point to a recovering economy.

Governor Brown believes a temporary tax extension is what California needs to stay on the path to complete recovery. Will voters agree with Governor Brown’s proposal or go their own way in November?