STATE OF THE STATE : ‘California Is Where Continent Ends and Future Begins’

Excerpts of Gov. Pete Wilson’s State of the State speech to the Legislature:

Last year, gridlock gave way to progress. In one of the most productive legislative sessions in history, we united in common purpose to promote job creation, to remake welfare and to pass a budget on time. Newcomers and old lions joined together to make a difference. . . .

Without the reforms we have made to workers’ comp, without reforms creating investment incentives and cutting red tape, businesses would continue to flee our state--taking jobs with them. But we did make those important changes. We have reversed that flow of non-defense jobs out of California. More and more, the announcements these days are good news of new companies and new jobs for California.

If we hadn’t made tough decisions to cut spending, our budget would still be on autopilot growth. It would be nearly $16 billion higher than it is today. That would be $1,300 more in taxes for the average California taxpayer. But we did hold the line on spending, to create more growth.

And if we hadn’t begun to reform welfare, the system would still penalize those who choose the dignity of a job over the dependency of welfare. But we did reform welfare to finally make work pay. . . .

Tonight, we must continue moving forward, continue building a better future for California. It’s a future whose only limits are those of our own imagination, hopes and tenacity.

Let us not forget, after all, what California is. We aren’t just another state. California is the place where the continent ends and the future begins. . . .

The most urgent questions facing us are: How do we accelerate job creation? And how do we slam the brakes on violent crime? The questions are very much related. New jobs and safe streets are the twin pillars on which we must build California’s future. But employers don’t bring or even keep jobs in neighborhoods that are no longer safe for their customers’ workers. . . .

We must move on three fronts to make California safe from crime.

First, we need to put more police on the street.

Second, we need to do all we can to prevent children from ever turning to crime.

And finally, to those criminals who are the most serious threat to society, we must send a clear and certain message: California is through with revolving-door justice. You have to say and mean that if you commit a crime, you’re going to do serious time. . . .

Tonight I propose sending more police officers to those communities especially hard hit by violent crime. We’ll recruit and train 500 new California Highway Patrol officers and place them in high-crime areas to fight crime with local law enforcement officials. To the criminal on the street our answer will be the cop on the beat. . . .

We must enforce a simple rule: Father a child--support that child.

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

We must prosecute as adults perpetrators of vicious, violent crime at age 14, and above.

To make our streets safe again, we must target the most dangerous criminals. Research shows us that most serious crimes are committed by relatively few habitual criminals.

Richard Allen Davis is the most recent example. Davis has confessed to the tragic murder of little Polly Klaas. Davis is a repeat felon, a career criminal with a long, long record of habitual sordid crimes and violence.

This animal . . . should never have been at large on the streets of California.

Last year, in California more than 400 children were murdered. Our streets are being stained with the blood of our children--and it’s got to stop. Damn it, it has got to stop.

So I ask you, please, work with me to pass tougher laws. We know what California needs to make our cities, our suburbs, and our small towns safe again.

For those who commit forcible rape, who molest a child, or devastate a community through arson, the first offense should be the last. . . .

Arsonists and sexual predators are habitual offenders. What we need for them is a simple law: One strike, you’re in--for life. In good conscience, how can we risk releasing them to claim another victim, to traumatize another life?

. . . . Law-abiding citizens have the right to a weapon for self-defense. Criminals do not. But they are not deterred by a three-year sentence. A repeat felon with a gun is a new tragedy waiting to happen. Don’t let it happen. Give him life . . . .

We need to ensure that all dangerous criminals serve more of the time to which they’re sentenced. For the last three years I’ve demanded that we slash good-time credits that allow criminals to walk free--routinely serving only half their sentence. Even murderers can now subtract one-third of their sentence for good behavior.

That’s an outrage. . . .

As governor, I’ve opened five new prisons. Tonight I propose that we offer $2 billion worth of bonds to build six more.

There will be those who protest such costs. They’ll complain that they would prefer to spend the money on higher education rather than more prisons. So would I. But this cost is not a matter of choice. The cost of California’s failure to keep Richard Allen Davis behind bars was paid by Polly Klaas. Does anyone want to tell how much a child’s life is worth?

Does anyone want to assign a dollar value to the lives of 400 murdered children?

We can--we must--prevent these crimes by building the prisons we need to put violent criminals away and changing the law to see that they go there and stay there long enough to protect society. . . .

Tonight I propose a $1,000 tax credit for each new job up to 100 jobs created by a start-up business during a two-year period beginning July 1. I say, let’s reward those Californians who have the guts to start a new business and put our people back to work . . . .

We’re opening one-stop shops so that getting the permits needed to create new jobs doesn’t become a job in itself. The first two shops have opened in Los Angeles and Orange County. Four more will soon follow and we intend to create them all over California. . . .

Too often our regulations protecting our air overlap with our regulations protecting our water, and both overlap with still more regulations. This redundant process wastes time, raises prices and kills jobs. It’s not the standards that are the problem, it’s the process. We’re going to develop a plan with the Conservation Foundation to consolidate these regulations. We’re going to insist they make sense. . . .

So tonight I propose expanding our marketing efforts in Mexico and doubling our export financing program. Let’s help California companies take full advantage of NAFTA in entering the Mexican market and creating new jobs at home.

My Administration will be holding “How to Export to Mexico” seminars around the state. We’ll be working with California farmers and ranchers, high-tech entrepreneurs and engineers, working to find new markets for California products and California produce around the world. . . .

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

In California, we’ve been cutting the cost of state government. In the past two years, we’ve reduced General Fund spending by $4 billion. We’ve abolished 111 unnecessary boards and commissions. We’ve left 22,000 state jobs unfilled and saved a billion and a half dollars in welfare costs.

Tonight, I ask you to join me in making government even more efficient by abolishing the Energy Commission and the Integrated Waste Management Board and by trimming middle management in state government by 10%.

Unfortunately, while we were cutting the cost of government in Sacramento, Washington was passing a tax hike that hit California taxpayers harder than taxpayers in 45 other states. . . .

Well, for middle-class taxpayers, instead of a hike, I say we give ‘em a break.

Specifically, I propose that, for California taxpayers earning less than $40,000 who will pay higher taxes under the Clinton tax plan, we reduce income taxes by an average of 19% for single taxpayers, 18% for joint filers.

In fairness, it will offset the federal tax hike for the 4.2 million taxpayers who can least afford to pay. . . .