Monday, May 25, 2009
For Immediate Release PBI Contact – Jacqueline Ruiz, 323.343.3770
Media Contact – Edward Headington, 818.720.7181
Website – http://www.patbrowninstitute.org/
State’s Top Fiscal Officer spoke on “California’s Financial Future: Getting Beyond Gridlock”
LOS ANGELES, CA — For nearly three decades, the Edmund G. “Pat” Brown Institute of Public Affairs at California State University, Los Angeles (PBI) has focused on state and community issues and been a standard bearer for the legacy of its namesake. Last Thursday, as part of its California Agenda series, the PBI focused on the Golden State’s financial future featuring the Honorable John Chiang.
“With the Special Election this past Tuesday, we could not ask for a timelier topic and speaker,” said PBI Executive Director Jaime Regalado. “No one is sure what is going to happen next but the proposed cuts will be severe and affect many of California’s working families. I thank the Controller for his comments today and commend him for his leadership on the budget deficit.”
State Controller John Chiang delivered his remarks in the Golden Eagle Conference Center at California State University Drive, Los Angeles in front of an audience of many different community stakeholders: Cal State LA faculty, students and administration, representatives from Kaiser Permanente, Southern California Edison, Wells Fargo and Speaker Karen Bass’s office, neighborhood council leaders, and many more.
“[Governor] Pat Brown created a California that had all of our eyes set a little higher so that we saw a bigger and brighter horizon,” said Controller John Chiang. “There is a huge whiplash effect [with unemployment going up] when you have a downturn in the economy—and that’s what we’re experiencing. Then there is national and global economic phenomenon happening. . . . We can’t continue to roll these debts and deficits on a year-to-year basis because—truthfully—this is your life. The California budget impacts our lives—it’s our education, our healthcare, our infrastructure, our jobs. This ought to be personal for you. It’s important that you elevate your participation … to help the elected and appointed leaders make the right decisions because that’s how you rebuild the California economy and rebuild a system that truly meets our greatest aspirations.”
Footage of the Controller’s remarks available here: Video 1; Video 2; Video 3; and Video 4
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The Edmund G. “Pat” Brown Institute of Public Affairs, a presidentially chartered institute at California State University, Los Angeles, is a non-partisan public policy center dedicated to sustaining vision and legacy of former California Governor Edmund G. "Pat" Brown through convening public policy forums, engaging multi sector stakeholders and diverse communities, and conducting timely policy research and community driven initiatives. For more information, go to http://www.patbrowninstitute.org/.
The California Agenda is a component of the PBI’s Public Policy Education Program and is hosted this year by Southern California Edison and Wells Fargo. It was created to educate and engage leaders and individuals across the sectors on significant state, regional and local public policy issues.
