Governor Announces $3.5 Billion In Proposition 1B Bond Funds To Rebuild California

DIRECTOR WILL KEMPTON: Good afternoon. I'm Will Kempton, director of the California Department of Transportation. Prior to the election in November of 2006 I spent a lot of time with the Governor campaigning around the state of California. The Governor wasn't campaigning for re-election; he was campaigning for five bond issues to rebuild California's infrastructure. Thanks to the Governor's vision, the support of the legislature and the wisdom of California's voters, we now have $43 billion to spend on schools, water systems and transportation infrastructure across California. Also, we have money to stimulate the state's economy and to provide thousands of jobs for Californians.

Today the Governor is going to update you on the progress of the implementation of Proposition 1B, the $20 billion transportation bond. Before I bring on the Governor let me introduce the other folks standing behind me. First of all, we have José Huizar, L.A. city councilman from the 14th District. We have Tim McCallion, who is the chair of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce and president of the western region of Verizon. We have Danny Curtin, the director of the California Conference of Carpenters. We have Gary Toebben, the CEO of the L.A. Chamber, here with us today. And finally, Brad Mitzelfelt from the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors.

And now it is my great personal honor to introduce to you the Governor of the great state of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger. (Applause)

GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER: Thank you. I also want to say thank you very much, Will Kempton, for your nice introduction and also for your great work and your great leadership. I want to thank also Councilman Huizar for being here today and saying a few words afterwards. And Danny Curtin with the California Conference of Carpenters, who has been my partner and who is really also largely responsible that we were able to get this approved and through the legislators, all these infrastructure bonds, so we want to thank him also for that. And Tim McCallion and Gary Toebben from the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, we want to thank them also for being here today.

This is a great day today, again, because we just heard that the Transportation Commission has again approved another $300 million that will go towards rebuilding our roads and this is 1B infrastructure bond money that is very important in order to improve our transportation system here in California. As Will said, that this was a huge undertaking. I was always a big believer, when I came into office, that we've got to rebuild the state of California, our schools, our levees, our transportation system, affordable housing and all of those things. And so it's always nice when you see money actually being pushed out and when we actually see the action and the money being used to build. That's what the people expect us to do and this is exactly what's happening.

So today, with the $300 million, again, to go out for us to build roads -- and not only roads. The great thing here is -- and this is something we did not anticipate -- that there would be an economic downturn eventually and that this money can be pushed out faster and therefore create jobs much quicker. Because as you all know, because of the subprime mortgage crisis and because of the housing crisis that we're in, there are a lot of people in the construction business that have lost jobs. Because of this $300 million, or the more than 2.5 billion that has been pushed out already, create a lot of jobs. Just to give you an idea, the $300 million create approximately 6,000 jobs. And this makes us very, very happy, because the people of California need those jobs and the economy needs it. So this is really money that is welcome right now. We are very excited about that.

And with that, I want to turn the microphone over to Jose -- no, actually to Danny Curtin. I'm going to call Danny Curtin out to say a few words here. So thank you very much.

DANNY CURTIN: Okay, my pleasure. Thank you. Thank you for crediting me with the passage of the bonds, but I'm going to have to talk everybody out of that pretty soon. I am really very proud to be here with the Governor and the distinguished guests behind us.

You know, a lot of the political world that you cover is really a headline-driven situation; and the Governor mentioned some things that you've seen in the headlines with the housing crisis, things of that nature. I have to say that the Governor has been tackling the fundamentals in California. In this particular instance, the infrastructure bonds that were passed two years ago -- that Will Kempton has been so instrumental in really moving out through the transportation bureaucracy in a way that we haven't seen in many, many years -- it actually serves to address some of the headlines in terms of the economic downturn.

But that was not the original purpose of it. The purpose of it, as I said, is the Governor has kept his eyes on the fundamentals. I find myself standing with him very often. I am a labor official and some people think that often makes for an odd bedfellow with a Republican governor. Frankly, when we stand up here we're talking about $40 billion worth of infrastructure. The Governor pushed a universal health care program that he's still fighting for, a water infrastructure issue throughout the state so that we have water as we see the global warming thing hit. The Governor pushed the clean air; we now have the strongest greenhouse gas laws in the state. Something that's particularly close to my heart is job training. The Governor is a very, very big supporter of career technology.

So this is not really a political agenda; this is the people's agenda. That's why I am always so comfortable joining him in these. And I'll be honest with you; the lineup here with the head of the Chamber of Commerce, or the chairman of the board of the Chamber of Commerce and a labor official is a very, very good example of what I'm talking about. These are not the red issues or the blue issues that you're reading about in the headlines.

This the Golden State. The Governor has seen what has to be done; he's now pushing for a budget reform. These are not partisan issues. We back him on these because we believe he's doing the right thing.

So I was going to reintroduce the Governor, but since the order has changed I'm going to introduce the councilman, the L.A. councilman from the 14 District, José Huizar. Thank you.

COUNCILMAN JOSÉ HUIZAR: Thank you very much, Danny. Well, first and foremost I want to thank the Governor for his leadership in passing these propositions that have made improvements throughout the state of California and I want to welcome the Governor to Council District 14 in the City of Los Angeles. Here we are in the middle of a neighborhood that is a gateway to downtown Los Angeles from the San Gabriel Valley. It is one of the major thoroughfares for traffic to come through here. Because of the passage of these bonds we will be able to see some improvements here on the HOV lanes and also, as you see, the bus lanes that we have. This will help relieve congestion.

But we not only relieve congestion, we also improve the air quality. Every major interstate passes through this neighborhood; the 10, the 5, the 110 near downtown. What this will do, as we improve and reduce congestion is also help the children who live around here. I actually have two young daughters and I live two blocks down the street here. With the improvements that we're going to make here, the investment we're going to make on this stretch of highway, we will reduce congestion, improve the air quality and hopefully encourage more people to take public transportation. If we make it easier for them to take public transportation, more convenient and improve where these buses go, more people will take that public transportation and we need that.

So, thank you very much. Thank you Governor and thank you, all of you, who have invested in the future for the state of California.

And now I would like to introduce someone who championed the propositions along with our Governor, Tim McCallion, the chair of the board for the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce. Tim? (Applause)

TIM McCALLION: Thank you, Councilman Huizar. It is truly a pleasure to be here on behalf of the business community. The business community was a strong proponent of the ballot propositions that provided this transportation funding. We were proud to work hand in hand with the Governor, with the labor community, to get the ballot propositions passed. It is so important, now that the voters said yes to this infrastructure investment, that we're moving forward. As the Governor indicated, we need the jobs. The economic downturn is certainly taxing us all. Those are jobs in the short run that are going to help stimulate the economy.

But also, more importantly, we're looking forward to the long run so that we build infrastructure here in California that will make California and especially Southern California, not only the entertainment capital of the world, but the business capital of the world. So we're very pleased to be here today and we're very pleased at the stimulus that this investment in infrastructure is going to create for the economy. Thank you. (Applause)

QUESTIONS/ANSWERS:

GOVERNOR:                                     Thank you very much. And if you have any questions about this, please feel free. We have a microphone there, so you can talk into the microphone so I can hear you.

QUESTION:                                       Mr. Governor, Willa Sandmeyer, Channel 4 News. We've been covering some protest rallies, people very concerned about the education budget cuts. And my managing editor was just wanting to know if you are still committed to having to cut 10 percent across-the-board, if those education budget cuts are still going to have to stand and what's the latest with that.

GOVERNOR:                                     Well, first of all, let me just say that in my budget I only promise the money that we actually have. We have $96 billion this year; that's all we can spend. So for me to promise more would be irresponsible, even though, I have to say, that's a common thing amongst politicians. But I don't see myself as a politician. I'm much more a public servant, so I will not do that. I will not promise education or anyone else more than we have.

Number two, the most important thing is that we fix our budget system once and for all, so that we put a rainy day fund aside so when we have good years we put some of that money aside. So when we have bad years, like right now, we can supplement those kind of shortfalls in revenues. And I think it is very important to do that, to reform the system, so we don't have to take our children and our education system on that roller coaster ride where everyone has to hold on for dear life. It's unfair to the children, it's unfair to the teachers, it's unfair to our families. And this is why I urge the legislators, Democrats and Republicans, to get together as soon as possible and to fix our budget system once and for all, because the people of California deserve the best.

Any other questions, please? Good. Thank you very much. You all have a good time, okay? Thank you.