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Economy

Brown To Tout Budget Proposal In San Diego

Calif. Gov. Jerry Brown signs the 2013-14 state budget, as Democratic legislative leaders and Budget Committee chairs watch, June 27, 2013.
Pauline Bartolone, Capital Public Radio
Calif. Gov. Jerry Brown signs the 2013-14 state budget, as Democratic legislative leaders and Budget Committee chairs watch, June 27, 2013.

Gov. Jerry Brown will be in San Diego Friday to talk up his budget proposal.

Brown, who will start the day in Sacramento and speak at San Diego City Hall about 12:30 p.m., is expected to discuss a constitutional amendment for establishing a reserve fund to help stabilize the state's boom-or-bust cycles.

Voters would have the final say on the issue in November.

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He is expected to direct about $250 million in revenue from the state's pollution credit program to the high-speed rail project, according to published reports. Legal challenges have crippled long-term financing for the "bullet train,'' although the state has secured some $3.4 billion in federal funding.

Both proposals could meet with opposition from some of his political allies, including unions and environmentalists. Brown outraged some environmentalists last year when he approved a $500 million loan from the state's cap-and-trade pollution credit program to the state's general fund.

Brown, who is still working to comply with federal court orders to reduce California's prison population, is also facing drought-related problems as the state moves into a third year of below-normal rainfall.

In the Legislature, Assembly Speaker John Perez, Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, and state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson have lined up behind a proposal to make pre-kindergarten universal for 4-year-olds, which would cost an estimated $1 billion annually when fully implemented in 2020.