Jerry Brown for governor

Jerry Brown’s return for a third term as governor involved a degree of uncertainty, both because he came back and because the state was facing huge financial challenges. Three years later, we can say that his administration has been very good and he deserves to be re-elected.

Brown was able to quickly —thanks to the economic recovery—turn around the financial crisis with a conservative focus. It is debatable, given improvements in the budget, whether Brown should have restored budget cuts that were made to social programs during the crisis. The governor, in this case, remains firm about making our state financially sound by promoting a reserve fund for hard times.

Brown should also get credit for voters approving Proposition 30, which raised taxes so that more money gets allocated to education. In addition, there is Brown’s initiative to reform funding for K-12 education so that more funds are available for the poorest schools, where a majority of the students are minorities and English learners, and are controlled locally.

On the other hand, when it comes to immigrants, the governor showed that he is committed to these workers. He signed the law that authorizes the issuance of driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants and enacted the TRUST Act, which imposes limits on the cooperation between local authorities and immigration authorities.

What we do not agree with is the priority that the governor is giving to the bullet train project, when there are other needs. However, this does not prevent his administration from being very good. He deserves four more years. Vote for Jerry Brown for governor!