A great deal of his focus was on funding the school system and that brought brown right back around to his temporary tax initiative which would go through 2017. Brown says it would raise about 7-billion dollars a year, if approved by voters. Some question the accuracy of those numbers.
“For my part I’m determined to press ahead with substantial budget cuts and my tax initiative. The cuts are not ones I like, but the situation demands them. As for the initiative it’s fair, it's temporary, and it's half of what people were paying in 2010 and will protect our schools and will, guarantee, in the constitution, funding for the public safety programs we transferred into local government,” said Brown.
While the governor talked about closing the states 9 billion dollar budget gap he also spent a significant amount of time speaking in support of the California High Speed Rail. A $90 billion project, that is not funded.