Governor defends gas tax hike, environmental policy in annual speech

SACRAMENTO -- Gov. Jerry Brown used his 16th State of the State address to defend two of the signature issues of his last term, environmental policy and changes to the criminal justice system.

The speech was mostly free of the fiery anti-Donald Trump rhetoric of his 2017 address. In fact, the first time Brown even mentioned the president, it was to praise him for approving natural disaster aid to California and other states.

Minutes later, Brown called out Trump on climate policy, saying the "devastating forest fires and mudslides" that hit the state this year were made far worse by climate change.

"Action must be taken to avert catastrophic changes in our weather systems," Brown said. "All nations agree except one and that is solely because of one man: our current president."

Brown's handpicked attorney general -- Xavier Becerra, whom he swore in moments before last year's State of the State -- has sued the U.S. government more than two dozen times over the past year. Many of these cases have been related to climate change and environmental policy.

This includes Becerra's latest lawsuit filed this week, challenging Trump's decision to repeal a rule requiring greater monitoring and oversight of hydraulic fracking on federal land. California v. United States Bureau of Land Management, 18-CV00521 (N.D. Cal., filed Jan. 24, 2018).

Brown threw down a gauntlet to Republicans closer to home. He pledged to defend signature policies like high speed rail and SB 1, the gas tax he signed last year to provide $50 billion over a decade for road repair and transportation. Earlier this month, Brown said if the law is repealed, it could be another generation before anyone tries to fund transportation infrastructure.

"I will do everything in my power to defeat any repeal effort that gets on the ballot," Brown said. "You can count on that."

In her official response statement, Senate Republican Leader Patricia Bates, R-Laguna Niguel, signaled her caucus would continue to oppose Brown on both of these causes.

"Our state has become increasingly unaffordable for many Californians," Bates said. "The governor is touting the high-speed rail project that continues to balloon in cost, but voter-approved initiatives on building new water storage and modernizing schools remain largely unfulfilled."

Brown spent much of the rest of the speech seeking to shore up support for changes to the criminal justice system, many of them pushed through by a series of voter initiatives he backed. He painted a picture of a prison buildup that got out of hand in recent decades, including during his first two terms as governor from 1975 to 1983.

Since 1970, he said, the proportion of the California budget devoted to corrections nearly tripled, as did the per capita number of Californians in prison.

"Most inmates will be returning to their communities and we want them to be as reformed and rehabilitated as possible," Brown said.

He has backed up this sentiment in the state budget he introduced two weeks ago. Brown has proposed to spend nearly $57 million on inmate rehabilitation and job training.

"Since passage of his get out of jail free policies, violent crime and property crime have skyrocketed while police are forced to play 'catch-and-release' with criminals who would previously have been behind bars," said Sen. Scott Wilk, R-Antelope Valley, in an statement.

This year's budget included nearly $600 million for courts, over half of it for construction.

California Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye criticized Brown last year for not spending more. But this year she praised him for leading "us through the great recession to a more stable fiscal climate" and taking on "contentious issues such as criminal justice reform."

"His proposed budget for the judicial branch this year illustrates the kind of vision he has brought to California," she said by email after attending the State of the State address.

Brown didn't mention the sexual harassment scandals that have roiled the Capitol in recent months. But after the speech, the state Senate passed a resolution allowing it to suspend a member without pay. The Senate Rules Committee then voted to suspend Sen. Tony Mendoza, D-Artesia, for an additional 60 days or until the conclusion of a sexual harassment investigation against him. He had been scheduled to return Feb. 1.