The Associated Press Gov. Gray Davis
(right) waves before delivering his State of the State address at
the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif., Tuesday.
By Dexter Gauntlett
Daily Bruin Staff
In the annual State of the State address Tuesday night, Gov.
Gray Davis called upon Californians to turn adversity into
accomplishment economically, in education and in public safety.
According to Davis, the Department of Finance and the
Legislative Analyst agree California is facing a shortfall of over
$12 billion.
But even so, the 2002-03 budget proposal Davis said he will
submit to congress Thursday makes education his number one
priority, and it does not raise taxes.
“I intend to invest more in schools in 2002 than we did in
2001, and we will meet the Prop. 98 guarantee,” Davis
said.
Proposition 98 requires California schools to post a report card
consisting of 15 categories for schoolwide instructional
improvement.
While Davis pledged to make education a priority, one state
official said the University of California will not go unaffected
by the state’s budget cut.
“I believe the UC system will have some decrease in
overall funding … the budget cut will be worse than last
year,” said Paul Mitchell, spokesman for Assemblywoman Elaine
Alquist, D-San Jose, who is chair of the committee on higher
education.
Davis took the opportunity to advance his call Tuesday night for
$2.2 billion in cuts he originally proposed in November that he
said would be necessary to shift money to programs that would
stimulate the economy.
Among the cuts, the UC Budget would operate on $86 million less
than expected under the 2001-02 budget.
Davis also ordered a state-wide hiring freeze and asked all
state-funded groups to prepare to reduce their 2002-03 budgets by
15 percent.
Davis said his budget will be fair and will preserve the major
gains of the last three years, thus protecting the local
government.
“Even with the cutbacks I will propose, California will be
much stronger than it was just three years ago,” Davis
said.
Davis also urged President Bush and Congress to pass an economic
stimulus package in response to the softened economy. Californians
must commit themselves to doing everything they can to help those
who have lost their jobs, he said.
On security issues, Davis cited his establishment of the state
Anti-Terrorism Information center and the Joint Information
Center.
“No state has done more than California to protect its
citizens and vital assets since the terrorist attacks. Now, many
states are emulating our example,” he said.
Davis is working with the Bush Administration to create a tiered
system of public warnings when threats occur.
He is also asking the federal government to allow Highway Patrol
officers to provide additional sky-marshal protection on in-state
flights already taken in the course of their duties.
He said he will ensure that law enforcement officials ““
with the authority of the court ““ monitor communications by
suspected terrorists and allow “roving” wiretaps on
suspects.
In addition, Davis said he wanted to tighten controls over the
transportation of toxic and hazardous materials.
The governor also addressed “meeting the energy
challenge.”
“We were 100 percent exposed to the wildly fluctuating
energy market. Merchant generators ““ and some of our own
municipal utilities ““ were gouging us unconscionably,”
Davis said.
Despite praise from most of Davis’ fellow Democrats in the
legislature, Senate Leader John Burton criticized Davis for
proposing new spending and accused the governor of avoiding a tax
increase for political reasons.
“The governor is a politician running for office… If he
doesn’t want to step up to the plate, that’s his
problem,” Burton said.
With reports from Sara Chon, Daily Bruin Contributor, and Daily
Bruin wire services.