Governor Calls for More Jobs and Prisons, Tax Reductions : California: Wilson says middle class, some businesses should get breaks. He calls new jobs and safe streets the ‘twin pillars of the future.’

Citing job creation and crime reduction as the “twin pillars” on which he hopes to build California’s future, Gov. Pete Wilson on Wednesday proposed rewarding businesses that hire new workers and punishing more harshly violent criminals who repeatedly break the law.

In an election-year State of the State Address to a joint session of the Legislature, the Republican governor returned to two themes that helped him win the state’s highest office in 1990: taxes and crime.

Wilson said the state should cut taxes for business and the middle class, reduce regulation, put more cops on the street and build prisons to hold more criminals serving longer sentences than ever before.

Combining a pointed attack on federal policy-makers with a conciliatory call for bipartisan action on state problems, Wilson urged lawmakers to build on a year of cooperative efforts in which he and the Legislature enacted a package of bills intended to make California a better place in which to do business.

The governor put further behind him his negative rhetoric of 1992, when he complained in his State of the State speech that California had “lost much of its competitive edge” and warned that the changes he wanted would “cause discomfort.” The only discomfort he promised in this speech was for the state’s criminals.

Wilson linked his two key issues by insisting that companies will not build new plants or expand existing ones in a state in which their customers and workers do not feel secure in their homes or on the streets.

“New jobs and safe streets are the twin pillars on which we must build California’s future,” he said.

Wilson’s fourth State of the State speech was received politely in the ornate Assembly chamber dominated by Democrats. His 30-minute address was interrupted 15 times by applause.

But the two Democrats who are vying to oppose Wilson in the fall--state Treasurer Kathleen Brown and Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi--quickly criticized Wilson’s leadership afterward.

Even before Wilson spoke, state Democratic Party Chairman Bill Press tried to beat him to the punch by releasing a three-minute video featuring excerpts from the governor’s earlier addresses alongside statements about his record in office.

Press described the address as “an empty string of promises by a man who’s had three years--and never delivered.”

Press said Wilson’s call for lower taxes and tougher measures to deal with violent crime were good ideas, but he questioned the governor’s ability to make good on his promises.

“We’ve hard it all before,” Press said. “We kept waiting for the goods. They never arrived. And it won’t be any different this year.”

Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti of Van Nuys said Wilson was in a “campaign mode,” cynically promising to boost public safety funding while cutting taxes, a pledge Roberti said the governor cannot keep.

“It was plainly an election-year speech,” Roberti said.

Wilson did not say where he would find the $140 million his aides said it would cost to provide the tax cuts he proposed.

The governor suggested a $1,000 tax credit for each job, up to 100, created in start-up small businesses. And he suggested an 18% state income tax cut for Californians earning less than $40,000. He said he might seek more tax cuts as the year progresses.

“California must go further in making our tax structure competitive,” Wilson said. “Taxes are a cost of doing business. States that tax less than California are clearly more attractive on that score.”

Wilson also called for reduced regulations and paperwork and a doubling of the state’s export finance program. He repeated his call to abolish the state Energy Commission, added the Integrated Waste Management Board to his hit list and suggested that the state trim middle management jobs by 10%.

Wilson complained that the state’s efforts often are thwarted by the federal government. Every time the state takes a step forward, a “giant push back” comes from Washington.

“It’s not just that further defense cuts are idling aerospace workers,” Wilson said. “Federal water cuts are squeezing our farmers. A failed immigration policy is busting our budget. And higher federal taxes are pinching our wallets.”

On crime, Wilson said the state needs to focus on three points: more police on the street, improved programs to keep children from turning to crime, and stiffer sentences for violent offenders.

He made two references to Polly Klaas, the 12-year-old Petaluma girl who was kidnaped from her home and murdered, and to Richard Allen Davis, the repeat felon who has confessed to the crime. Wilson called Allen an “animal” who should never have been released from prison.

“We sympathize with those neglected children who are tempted by drugs or gangs,” Wilson said. “But when as teen-agers or adults they victimize others, our sympathy must yield to responsibility. And our first responsibility must be always to protect the innocent and punish the guilty.”

Last year, Wilson said, more than 400 children were murdered in California.

“Our streets are stained with the blood of our children, and it’s got to stop,” Wilson said. “Damn it, it’s got to stop.”

Wilson proposed hiring 500 new California Highway Patrol officers and assigning them to high-crime communities to help local police. He cited a special program in the city of East Palo Alto in which a regional crime-fighting effort reduced the murder rate by 86%.

“Swift response and united community worked in East Palo Alto, and it can work around our state to reduce the fears felt by too many Californians,” he said.

Wilson also repeated his call for adoption of the “three strikes” measure to lock up three-time violent felons for life. If the Legislature does not pass the measure, he said, the voters will enact the proposal as a ballot initiative.

For certain arsonists and sexual offenders, Wilson said, the punishment should be even swifter: life in prison for the first offense. Repeat felons caught with a gun should face the same fate, he said. Credits allowing prisoners to cut their sentence in half by working and behaving well while behind bars should be curtailed, he added.

“It’s time to turn career criminals into career inmates,” Wilson said.

The governor said the state should build six new prisons--adding to the 26 already housing more than 110,000 inmates--financed by a $2-billion bond measure that he wants to put before the voters later this year.

Wilson acknowledged that the anti-crime effort would be expensive. He said he would rather spend the money on universities than prisons. But the state, he said, has no choice.

“Does anyone want to tell me how much a child’s life is worth? Does anyone want to assign a dollar value to 400 murdered children?” Wilson asked. Then he added: “We can--and we must--prevent these crimes by building the prisons we need to put violent criminals away.”

Wilson made few attempts at soaring rhetoric and outlined no expansive vision for the state’s future, as he did in his first State of the State speech in 1991.

Californians, he said, are less concerned about the coming century than “about the security of their job today and the safety of their family tonight.”

But neither did Wilson lay down a controversial agenda like the one he proposed in 1992, when he waged confrontational, partisan conflict with the Democrats in the Legislature.

“If we work together, we can restore California as America’s preeminent state to live, work and raise a family,” he said. “We can ensure a California comeback.”

To emphasize his bipartisan approach, Wilson plans a three-day Midwest tour next week to sell California as a place to do business, and at least three legislative leaders say they intend to accompany him.

An adviser agreed that Wilson’s address was high on practical proposals and short on memorable flourishes.

“It was a no-frills, nuts-and-bolts kind of speech,” said Dan Schnur, Wilson’s campaign spokesman.