Governor Highlights $1.3 Billion in Transportation Funding at California Fuel Cell Partnership

Thank you very much, Sunne, for the wonderful introduction and for your wonderful speech. Thank you all for your great speeches. I appreciate it very much.

Thank you all for being here today. For me this is a great day, again because it’s wonderful to be here at the California Fuel Cell Partnership. We’re here today to celebrate actually two very important things for California. First, through this year’s budget we are renewing our commitment to transportation by fully funding proposition 42 for the first time ever, and adding an additional 1.3 billion dollars to transportation projects across our state. This will allow us to build bridges, expand highways, add new carpool lanes, and to terminate the gridlock and speed up the commute for Californians.

This is very important to the people, because Californians think that their number one problem is getting stuck in traffic. And dealing with this problem is not just important for today, but for the future, because California is growing like crazy. We are going to add 5 million people over the next 10 years in population, and this puts a tremendous amount of pressure on our infrastructure, especially in transportation, and this is why we are going to renew our commitment that once made our transportation network the envy of the world.

Now, the second thing that we are celebrating here today is the great work that is being done by the Fuel Cell Partnership, and also that we are moving one step closer to turning our hydrogen highway into reality. This is the testing ground for tomorrow, where the leading car manufacturers from around the world already have put 100 fuel cell vehicles on California roads, seeing how they perform in everyday conditions, and learning what it will take to make fuel cell cars the engine for the next generation.

Now, let’s be honest. California has always been the birthplace of innovation, and this is extremely important because we face big challenges here in California. As our state continues to grow we are going to have more cars on the road, and therefore more pollution, unless we develop cleaner burning cars.

This is why I am so proud to stand with the car companies here today and to thank all of the members of this partnership that are helping us build cars that can run on zero emission fuel cells. Now, that’s what I call fantastic. These cars behind me and the car that I drove up here with, is a fleet for the future, and I’m going to make sure that the state continues to be a strong partner in that effort. The new state budget that I signed will also spend an additional 6.5 million dollars so that we can build additional hydrogen fueling stations and use hydrogen-fueled cars and shuttle buses for more research and testing.

By working together we can build the infrastructure that our state needs in order to ease the traffic congestion and create the hydrogen highway and more fuel cell vehicles to ensure that California’s future is cleaner and greener. Thank you very much.

Q: You’ll forgive me if I don’t follow your instructions. The Speaker and the pro-Tem this week both said they’re very skeptical that any deal can get done on your special election agenda, which I know is very important to you. They think there’s not enough time, because specifically the budget measure is just far too complicated, where something can be worked out in the short amount of time that they say is available. So what do you do in terms of trying to compromise? And when do you pull the plug and start campaigning for your measures to try and ensure that they pass in November?

GOVERNOR: Well, as I’ve always said, that I’m always very optimistic that I—from January on, when I held my state of the state address, I made it very clear that the only way that we can really accomplish everything is if we work together, Democrats and Republicans. And this is what I’m looking forward to even today. I’m optimistic. I don’t take no for an answer, and we’re going to continue working in that direction. But we are running out of time, as you said, and there will be a time where we will just say, okay, this is now—the time has passed. Because remember, the legislators had now since January to negotiate, so it’s not like something that has come up that is new. I would never do that to them. I always try to give them enough time, and this is why I made those statements in January to say, "Let’s work together and let’s solve the problems, because we’ve got to move California forward."

We’ve got to solve our budget problem that we have. Even though we have a terrific budget, but our structural deficit is still in danger, it’s still going up. So we have to solve those problems, and that’s why I think the people have voted for me in order to fix a broken system. So I’m looking forward to that.

And as a whole, you know, we want to move California forward if it’s with the budget, if it is with education, or if it is with innovation—coming up, for instance, with vehicles for the future, coming up with the great hydrogen highway that the whole world is looking at, using us as an example. So that’s what we are celebrating every day, is moving California forward.

And my I remind you, California is in terrific shape. We are really moving forward, when you think about it, how our economy has turned around, how many jobs we have created, how many more billions of dollars we have in revenues. Things are going really well, and this is why we’ve got to move forward with our agenda and really live up to 100 percent of our potential.

Q: (IA)

GOVERNOR: You can take the microphone so I can hear you with the traffic. Thank you.

Q: Governor, the special election isn’t popular with the people of California. Your redistricting measure, the Attorney General is trying to pull it off the ballot. These have been a difficult last few months for you. Is your agenda unraveling?

GOVERNOR: I’m very happy that we are right on track with our agenda. I’m today more convinced than ever that we need to fix the broken system. This is what the California people want, this is what we want, this is what the legislators want. We all have to just figure out how we can do it as quickly as possible, because like I said, if it’s a broken system, you want to fix it right now, and this is what we are trying to do.

Thank you very much. Yes. Yes, one more. Go ahead. Sure.

Q: (IA) and there are some legislators who want to have hearings about what your office knew and when, about problems with the language. Do you think those hearings are fair? Do you think your office delayed telling Secretary McPherson what was going on?

GOVERNOR: Remember, ever since we have announced our reforms, there have been a lot of forces that believe in the status quo, and they want to hold on to the way things are, and have tried to derail us, and have put all kinds of different roadblocks up. And so doing the kind of reforms that we want to do is something that is—you know, something that a lot of people would like to stop. So it’s like running through a minefield. But we are going to get there. We’re going to get there and we’re going to create the reforms so that we can fix the broken system once and for all. And I’m very determined, more than ever, that we need to fix it. And the only way I can fix it is with the people’s help. We have done it last year; last year we accomplished a lot with the help of the legislators, but most importantly, with the help of the people. And I’m just asking the people of California again to help me so that we can reform and fix a broken system.

Thank you very much. Thank you.