Governor -Elect Jerry Brown was in Sacramento Thursday meeting with managers in the State Finance Department. Brown was discussing California’s financial situation and the next budget. He said starting in a few weeks, he’ll be in the state capitol almost daily.
“I’ll be up here full time working as much as I possibly can, as humanly possible, on the state budget,” Brown said. “It’s very daunting, it’s certainly as bad as it’s ever been.”
During the gubernatorial campaign, Brown often spoke of his plans to deal with the state budget. Among other things, he plans to use the system of zero-based budgeting. That means the budget starts from scratch, and state departments must justify their spending requests. It’s a process Republicans have favored in the past.
Brown said he also wants to make state government leaner, and give some power back to local governments.
