Governor Highlights Need to Upgrade Technology Infrastructure at Conference on California’s Future

GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER: Well, thank you very much. Thank you for this nice welcome. And wow, this place is packed! I think it's just too hot outside, that's why you're all coming in here to this air-conditioned room. (Laughter)

But anyway, talking about the heat -- I want to first, before I start off my speech, talk a little bit about that, because I think there are various different areas in California that are facing a heat wave today and temperatures are going to rise to triple-digit numbers. And so I want to just make sure that the people are careful about that, that they take proper health precautions and that they also save energy. And also, I want to remind people that just remember, there's always someone living next to you that might be vulnerable, that might be old, that might not be as mobile to get around. So check on your neighbor, make sure that they are fine too, which is very, very important.

Thank you for listening to that and now let's go on to our speech. It's very important to do those public service announcements, you know? (Laughter) To help people.

But anyway, first of all let me just say that when I heard about this event and especially about the title of this event, the Conference of California's Future, I was excited about that because I always like to talk about the future of California and my vision of the future of California. And, of course, when you talk about this subject you can go in so many different directions. And I think this is what this conference is about, is to talk about technology, to talk about infrastructure and building more roads and rebuilding California and we can talk about the environment and all of those different areas.

So I want to address some of those issues here today and I also want to talk a little bit about the budget also afterwards, which is, I think, also something that has to do with the future of California.

But first of all, let me just say that there are a lot of uncertainties right now in California here, if it is the economy, if it is the mortgage crisis, the subprime mortgage situation, the housing market going down and the gas prices, the budget situation and so on. But I just want to say that California, when it comes to our future, that we are really strong. I think that we are in the best place we can be and the reason for that is because we are investing in our future.

Now, you remember that 40, 50 or 60 years ago, our parents and our grandparents built the foundation of California's prosperity. They built the world-class universities, the water system. They built the infrastructure in transportation, the universities and the schools and so on. And this is what gave us and became why we became the economic powerhouse that we are today.

The sad story about all of this is that then they stopped. Forty years ago, right after Pat Brown, we stopped investing in our infrastructure and in our future, which was a real problem, because now all of these decades we have fallen behind, because the population has increased from 18 million people to 38 million people but the infrastructure was not built accordingly.

And this why, when I ran for office in 2003, I promised the people that after we get our financial house in order that we're going to start talking about rebuilding California. So I went up and down the state campaigning to rebuild California and talked to the people about it. Of course, in the beginning when you talk to people about infrastructure it goes right over their heads, because they don't even know what the word infrastructure means a lot of times.

But then when you put it in personal terms and talk about people getting stuck in traffic and that our classrooms are overcrowded and our universities are bursting at the seams and our levees are vulnerable and could break at any time, I think they got it. And this is why we were successful, that the people started talking about it and putting the pressure on the legislators.

Democrats and Republicans started negotiating month after month and then finally they came up with a great strategic growth package for our state and put it on the ballot. Then the people of California approved $42 billion, which was a record amount of money. They approved to rebuild California. And now this money will go towards roads and bridges, levees and expanding our universities, career-tech educational facilities and so on, so we were very happy about that. But we have to continue driving, because this was only the foot in the door. We need, really, $500 billion over the next 20 years to really rebuild California's infrastructure.

As a matter of fact, we are right now negotiating the water infrastructure, because we want to make sure that we can promise people in California that we will have safe and reliable water in the future; not only for the next two or three years but 40, 50 years from now. This is why we have to build more water storage, above the ground and below the ground water storage. We have to fix the Delta and its ecosystem, we have to go and build new delivery systems and so on. So we're negotiating and hopefully that will be solved this year so we can put that also on the ballot.

But building for our future takes more than just cranes and bulldozers, it takes more than just laying steel and pouring concrete. We must not only expand the concrete highway that connects Eureka to San Diego but we must also build the digital highway that connects San Diego with Shanghai and Shanghai with Sydney and Sydney with Moscow and Moscow with Berlin and so on. We are in a new age where technology is everywhere around us and drives everything that we do.

It also is our greatest partner and our greatest asset as we work to conquer our challenges that threaten our future -- and I'm talking about environmental issues. We are developing clean cars now and alternative fuel and we are reducing our greenhouse gas emissions. And as you know, because that is very important for our future, to have a good environment and clean air, we passed AB 32, which is a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. We made a commitment to reduce our greenhouse gases by 25 percent by the year 2020 -- which is taking it back to the 1990 level -- and then an additional 80 percent by the year 2050.

And we also passed other laws, like the green building initiative and so on. We are creating new and cheaper forms of renewable energy so we can finally achieve energy independence, which is, of course, something that a lot of people believe cannot happen. But I believe very strongly that California will be the first state in the union to be energy independent while still fighting global warming, because we can do both. Even though it will not happen overnight, but deep down in my heart I know that it will happen if we all work together.

So there are many things going on in that area, but also in other areas, like heath care. We are revolutionizing health care. I have seen a doctor, for instance, examining a patient from 100 miles away through telemedicine. Or, for instance, in prescriptions; electronic records in prescriptions will prevent costly and tragic medical errors. We have every year more than 1,000 patients die because people misread prescriptions that are handwritten and medical errors that are made in hospitals because of a lack of technology.

So the bottom line is what does government have to do with all of this? Well, we set standards. We give private enterprises a nudge, like we are doing right now with the tailpipe emission standards, or with the low carbon fuel standards. Or, like I said earlier, with the Green Building Initiative, or with AB 32 and with all that. But the important thing is to know, where is the line? Where do you give a nudge where it can be helpful to the private sector and where do you get in the way? In many cases I think it is important for government to get out of the way and to let the private sector, to let you work and move forward, because government must not be an obstacle to success but must be a partner to prosperity.

That is what we did with our Broadband Initiative just a few years ago. We needed to spread the high-speed technology in every corner of our state but our laws and our legislations were outdated. I remember when I came into office we were back in the Stone Age with all of this and there were a lot of complaints. But we jumped into action and I signed an executive order to help clear the red tape and now things are moving much more freely.

And of course we also need to make sure that government is employing the latest tools in its own operation, because again, in that area also, we were way behind here in California. And it was embarrassing that some departments couldn't even communicate with other departments. The technology was like not existing.

That is why last year I created a Cabinet-level position to coordinate the state's technology policy. That is when I hired Teri Takai. And she, of course, is known very well as being the best of the best and she worked in Michigan and really did an amazing job there with the technology and got many awards because of it. And I felt that California should always be number one, never be number 10 or number 15. Californians hate that and especially I am a very competitive person; I hated that when I heard that we were way behind. (Applause)

And this is why I got in touch with Teri. And let me tell you something. I feel so lucky that finally, after meetings and after meetings, we convinced her that she should come out here to California, that this is the number one state and this is the best place in the world and she, as being number one, ought to be with the number one state. And we finally convinced her and sold her on that idea and she came out, so let's give her a big hand for the great job she's doing for California. (Applause)

Well, we are now, because of her help, we are moving full steam ahead. A perfect example is, for instance, GIS. GIS is a form of digital mapping technology, kind of like Google Earth but better. (Laughter) During last year's firestorm it allowed firefighters to see through the smoke, giving them a more accurate real-time view of the conditions on the ground. And because of that, many of them told me that saved lives and it saved an endless amount of homes. And this is just the start, because I have directed Teri to create a taskforce now to help other agencies and departments to tap into that vast potential of GIS.

We are also using technology to help make government more efficient and more accessible to the people, which I think is extremely important, because government ought to be there to serve the people at 100 percent of its potential. Fire victims now, for instance, can log onto our web page and find resources to help them recover and rebuild their lives. And many of our agencies allow you to apply for services online or make appointments online or to renew your driver's license and so on.

So as you can see, there are a lot of new and exciting changes that are taking place and that are happening that are transforming our future, all made possible by technology. That's why I am a big, big believer in technology, technology, technology. That's where the action is.

Now of course, as I said earlier, in order to prosper, for a state like California, we must also have our fiscal house in order. We can't have a great future without having a great fiscal policy. And this is why in my yesterday's revised budget proposal, or what is also called the May Revise, I proposed a constitutional amendment to stabilize our revenues and to eliminate our feast-and-famine budgeting that makes planning for the future so difficult.

And, just so you know what I'm talking about, is that we consistently, for the last few decades, have had a budget system that when we had an increase in revenues or a spike in revenues of 23 percent, the legislators had a tendency of spending it all, so that when we had a downturn we didn't have enough money and then they come always and ask about raising taxes.

So what I propose is, let us put money aside when we have those surges of revenues, not spend it all, put billions of dollars aside into a rainy day fund. And so, when we have our down years, like right now, we have extra monies to supplement the shortage of revenues, rather than always asking again for more revenues and for more taxes. So this is one of the things, I think, that is extremely important for the state of California, because otherwise we are sending our people, our education system, our businesses, our vulnerable citizens, law enforcement, prisons, all of those things, on a rollercoaster ride where everyone has to hold on for dear life. So I think that we can do it this year. (Applause)

So the challenges we face are real, but California has the best and the brightest minds here working to conquer all of those challenges. I'm absolutely convinced, because we have really bright people in our Capitol, that are strong and that are experienced, Democrats and Republicans, so it's important to bring both of the parties together. And I don't think that should be so difficult, because people always say to bring Democrats and Republicans together is always the biggest challenge. And I always tell them, "I sleep with a Democrat every night, so how big of a challenge can it be?" (Laughter) So we can do it. Where there's a will, there's a way. (Applause)

So let me just tell you, we are very fortunate in California because, unlike other states where they're only known for one thing -- some states are known for their oranges, some states are known for their potato chips, some states are known for their oil, some states are known for having just older people. (Laughter) This state is known for a lot of things because we are so diversified. We are so fortunate, we have so many different industries. We have, for instance, in the Central Valley the agriculture industry. That's an economy by itself. Then we have in northern California Silicon Valley, we have the high-tech industry. Then we have the biotech industry in southern California. Then we have in Hollywood the entertainment industry. And the list goes on and on and on. This is what makes us so strong.

So I think the important thing now is to know that California is doing well. California is the greatest place in the world and in California still we have the best days ahead.

Thank you very much, all, for listening. Thank you and it's great to be here today. (Applause)