This week, I unveiled the California Jobs Budget, a plan designed to confront and resolve the two most urgent priorities facing California: closing our budget deficit and putting Californians back to work.
Over the past several weeks, more than 1,900 Californians participated in budget hearings, held up and down California. They looked us in the eyes to tell us how they want Sacramento to solve the budget deficit--and I have heard them loud and clear.
Californians want politicians in Sacramento to come together and solve this crisis in a way that reflects their values and priorities. They want us to avoid cuts that will result in teachers, firefighters and cops from being laid off.
They do not want us to balance the budget on the backs of their friends and neighbors who are elderly, sick or poor. And they do not want us to pass broad-based taxes that will hurt our economy.
The California Jobs Budget clearly reflects those values.
We protect public education and public safety by repaying schools and local governments for years of bailing out Sacramento.
We protect the social safety net programs for our poor, sick and elderly neighbors.
And we keep more than 50,000 small businesses open for business throughout California by protecting the childcare programs that allow Californians to work.
Most importantly, we set aside $1 billion to invest in private sector job creation, because the pathway towards a strong and sustained economic runs through creating quality, high-paying jobs for Californians.
In contrast, the Governor's proposed budget punishes teachers, cops and firefighters. It eliminates the social safety net and costs California more than 430,000 jobs and 5 billion in federal dollars flowing into our economy.
That's not a budget that reflects California's values and priorities.
The California Jobs Budget does. We save or create 465,000 jobs. We protect teachers, cops and firefighters from layoffs. And we invest in private sector job growth, all without raising broad based taxes.
We finance this proposal by using money in the Bottles and Beverages fund as collateral, and then implement an oil severance tax that every other oil producing state requires oil companies to pay, and we delay corporate tax breaks that were negotiated in a secret backroom deal last year. We do not impose broad-based taxes.
The California Jobs Budget reflects the values and priorities of Californians, and I firmly believe this plan lays the foundation for future prosperity. That is the single most important task of government, and I look forward to working with my colleagues in the legislature to move this plan forward.