Governor Dennis Daugaard has made regular political hay of saying South Dakota's fiscal management is much better than California's.
Hmm... after increasing debt under four years of Democratic Governor Gray Davis and eight years of Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, California Governor Jerry Brown, who is a heck of a Democrat, announced yesterday that California's budget deficit has disappeared, thanks to a combination of tax increases and spending cuts. Governor Brown's 2014 budget calls for increases in spending on education, buys into the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion, and still runs an $851-million surplus (that's 0.9% of California's $96.7-billion general fund).
Democrats control two-thirds of both houses in the California Assembly. But even the Republicans in Sacramento are responding favorably to Governor Brown's successful budgeting. Assembly Republican Leader Connie Conway calls Governor Brown "the adult in the room."
Governor Jerry Brown faced a bigger fiscal mess than Governor Dennis Daugaard did in 2011. He has fixed it. Don't tell me Democrats can't govern.
Good for California... but I'm curious how they're going to address the $181.2 Billion in unfunded retirement costs still looming. That's going to take a lot of hard decisions. I hope California's up to the challenge.
Jerry Brown will be 78 on election day 2016. But he's holding up pretty well for 74 years old right now. Jerry Brown for President!
Wayne, they're apparently more up to it than Gov. Daugaard would have you believe.
R: how about Biden-Brown 2016?
I really like Joe Biden. Usually when he has verbal gaffes it's when he's speaking candidly in a way I wish more elected officials would. He and Jerry Brown both tell it like it is, and know how to get things done. Sadly though, I question whether either of them will have a realistic shot at the Presidency in 2016 at their ages. And I would like to see a female Democratic President sooner rather than later.