On Tuesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) delivered his 2024 State of the State address.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Olson delivered an inaugural address to raise the alarm with lawmakers and the people of this great state he spoke of
00:06California's most determined task in the face of quote-unquote
00:10destruction of democracy
00:15At that moment the state's highest calling was the
00:19Preservation of our American civil liberties and democratic institutions this year we face another
00:25Extraordinary moment in history for California for the country and the world
00:30We are presented with a choice between a society that embraces our values and a world darkened by division and discrimination
00:36The economic prosperity health safety and freedom that we enjoy are under assault
00:42Forces are threatening the very foundation of California success our pluralism our innovative spirit and our diversity
00:49There's only one state in America with a dream the California dream
00:53It's a dream built on opportunity a dream built on pushing boundaries and celebrating not tolerating
01:00Diversity that dream propelled us to the front of the pack to be the fifth largest economy in the world our values
01:07and our way of life are the
01:08Antidote to the poisonous populism of the right and the fear and anxiety that so many people are feeling today
01:15People across the globe they look to California to see what's possible now
01:19We can live together and advance together and prosper together across every conceivable and imaginable difference
01:25But the California way of life we recognize is
01:28under attack
01:30for conservatives and delusional California bashers their success
01:35Depends on our failure
01:36They want to impeach the very things that have made us successful as a tactic to turn America towards a darker future
01:43They do so in the name of quote-unquote liberty and freedom
01:47They want to roll back the same time social progress social justice racial justice economic justice clean air clean water
01:55and
01:56basic fundamental fairness
01:57they would cleave America from the principles of freedom and
02:01The rule of law and in the process through our economy and in many respects society as we know it into chaos
02:09But California we won't bend
02:11We are a success story exactly because of our universality and our extraordinary diversity and because we practice
02:19pluralism for generations
02:21We've stood for progress
02:23championing women's rights and LGBTQ rights protecting the environment and expanding civil rights
02:28We see this hard-earned progress not as something apart from liberty and freedom, but as their fulfillment
02:35Sadly, there is a another way to see the world those bent on putting America on a darker course choose chaos
02:43overstability at every turn for our detractors that the distorted prism of political pattering means cutting
02:49Healthcare benefits and telling a woman she's not in charge of her own body when it comes to
02:55Reproductive rights their lives are designed to control
02:59Their draconian policies are are driving women to flee across state lines as fugitives
03:05From laws written by men more than a hundred years ago
03:09Some even go so far as to force victims of assault to give birth to their rapist babies as extreme
03:15Politicians and other states take away women's rights
03:19California stands as a beacon of self-determination
03:22Together with this legislature. We have passed some of the strongest laws in the nation protecting women's health
03:29Thanks to Senator Nancy Skinner and Tony Atkins and Lieutenant Governor Eleni
03:33Kounalakis we've stood firm against radical lawmakers who would criminalize women in other states and with your help
03:40We are protecting women Medi-Cal providers doctors health care facilities from the forces of darkness in this country
03:48We will never turn our backs on women or threaten their freedom to travel
03:54When it comes to the southern border with Mexico
03:58California's proven time and time again that it's willing to tackle the hardest problems
04:03But Republicans in Congress choose cynicism and the dangerous path of chaos instead of doing their job
04:10To help us secure the border think of this for all their talk of securing the border
04:16They rejected over and over and over again the opportunity to add
04:20thousands of new border agents and new immigration judges as well as personnel and
04:25Hundreds of millions of dollars to support local communities near the border and for what pure
04:31unadulterated partisan politics when they speak about immigrants poisoning American blood and mass
04:38Deportations and detention camps. This is the language of destruction of
04:431939 when governor Olsen issued his warning
04:47California is home to the busiest land port in the Western Hemisphere
04:51And we've addressed the problems at the border with resolve. We also addressed it with resources not plain politics
04:59Give you an example the vast majority of fentanyl seized at the border
05:02We know comes through ports of entry and that's exactly why we've deployed
05:07the National Guard to stop the flow of this deadly drug into our state and
05:12The impact it has across the United States allowing Border Patrol agents to do their job
05:18these operations have resulted in the seizure of over sixty two thousand pounds of fentanyl in
05:232023 a
05:251066 percent increase since
05:282021 in the first five months just of this year alone counter drug operations have led to the seizure of some
05:35estimated 5.8 million pills containing fentanyl statewide
05:40the same time California's proudly provided humanitarian assistance and temporary shelter to migrants and their families and
05:47along the border communities
05:49easing the burden to local cities
05:52Unfortunately, California has largely had to go this alone again because Republicans in Congress when presented with an opportunity to assist
06:00Border states have turned their back. They've chosen politics chosen inertia and they've advanced pure political pandering
06:08When it comes to America's homeless problem, California's detractors have similarly offered nothing
06:14But rhetoric moaning and casting blame no state by the way has done more as
06:20California addressing this pernicious problem of homelessness plaguing cities and towns not just across the state of California
06:26But increasingly across the United States too many politicians for too long have ignored this problem
06:33Let me remind you just as an example when I got here in 2019. There was no state homeless strategy
06:38No state homeless plan. There was no significant investment. Sure. There was a half a billion dollar contribution
06:45one time made to local government, but there was no expectation of
06:49Anything in return accountability there was no demonstrable results
06:55Expected when I came into office we wanted to change that paradigm
06:58That's why I presented a state of the state exclusively on the issue of homelessness and mental health
07:04This is my commitment to California. We would no longer ignore this most pressing and distressing problem since then by the way
07:11We've cleared now over
07:129,300 dangerous encampments and we're helping tens of thousands of people move from tents and
07:17Freeway underpasses to shelter or housing our innovative home key program has revitalized former motels
07:24Hotels and apartments and provided more than fifteen thousand three hundred units of housing combined with project room key
07:31California is now provided now provided shelter for more than seventy one thousand people
07:38Well, the causes of homelessness are indeed complex. The solution is rather simple housing and supportive services
07:46housing and supportive services
07:48That's why we've focused our reforms specifically to address the housing needs as it relates to reforming sequel
07:55I've signed now 32 sequel reforms to build more housing faster at the same time creating more
08:02Accountability by establishing a housing accountability unit to hold cities and counties
08:07Accountable of following the law here are the results just in the last year or two
08:13We've seen some
08:15442 actions against local government including lawsuits to compel them to follow the law
08:21The success of accountability in the housing space is why we're adding similar accountability and oversight
08:28for homelessness
08:30we're requiring cities now and counties to account for how they spend taxpayer dollars to get people off the streets and
08:36sidewalks at a tent and
08:38Into housing. Okay, so long as there are people living outdoors so long as people are suffering from
08:45bipolar disorder schizophrenia paranoia self-medicating with drug or alcohol
08:49Addictions our work clearly is not done
08:53most importantly though we have created a mosaic a mosaic of
08:58extraordinarily
08:59transformative and impactful mental health reforms
09:02Started with a new paradigm of thinking care court nation leading effort that provides treatment and housing for people with the most serious
09:09untreated mental health challenges
09:11This is critical to help exhausted and financially stressed families that have been trying to help relatives loved ones stuck in the dark an
09:19unimaginable pain
09:21suffering so often alone
09:23Thanks to Susan Eggman Tom Umberg. This program is moving out of the pilot phase
09:27I'll be up and running every county in the state of California by the end of this year
09:33We also took on the difficult and politically fraught task of conservatorship reform
09:38How many decades have we been discussing the issue of conservatorship reform saying it was necessary?
09:44But increasingly impossible to achieve. Well, we achieved it now for the first time
09:49We're helping to find meaningful solutions for families with relatives suffering from acute mental health and substance abuse disorders
09:57Perhaps the steepest hill to climb was tackling the changes that were necessary as well the Mental Health Services Act
10:04This year we made a dramatic shift to focus the law on those struggling the most to shift
10:10Resources to housing and supportive services. This is the biggest effort in our lifetime to combat
10:17substance abuse and mental health as
10:19Well, and this is a future that was advanced because of all of you
10:24Proposition one. It's the future that you provided us with the support of the California voters
10:28We were able now to build over 11,000 new beds and housing units for those with the most challenging
10:34Mental illness and we're requiring counties and cities in the state to focus existing money on housing and treatment for the toughest cases and critically
10:42We're guaranteeing a portion of those homes will go to veterans living on the streets many of them suffering from PTSD
10:48All of this while never compromising on our nation leading efforts to improve youth mental health with more school-based health
10:56professionals new mobile apps and platforms like Saluna to engage more kids earlier in prevention and
11:02Screening think about a world in which we did nothing about this crisis when we fell prey to the cynicism
11:08Negativity and the rhetoric and just rolled over and said it was simply unfixable the same by the way is true of the red state
11:15approach to crime
11:16They couldn't be more divorced from reality. Their entire crime agenda narrative is about diversion and distraction
11:23They create fear and division
11:25Meanwhile, people are are gunned down at higher rates in Republican states than in Democratic states eight eight of the ten
11:31Most violent murder states in America are red states
11:35even cities like Jacksonville and in Memphis have
11:39Significantly higher homicide rates than cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles, but that's not what you hear
11:46Instead you hear wall-to-wall right-wing media coverage about lawless blue cities and blue states
11:52In fact, California's violent crime rate is about half of what it was in the 1990s
11:581992 a lower homicide rate now than 29 other states including
12:04Florida and Texas and property crime as an example in San Francisco is down
12:0832% in Oakland with the California Highway Patrol in partnership with local law enforcement
12:14We've seen a decline a remarkable decline 33% in
12:19crime
12:20This is because in California we take public safety seriously
12:24We take it as a problem to solve not just a flog on cable news
12:29We didn't wake up to this yesterday beginning in 2019
12:32We funded local police and prosecutors specifically to go after retail theft not by defunding the police
12:39But by recruiting among other things
12:411,000 CHP officers, but we're not satisfied until we get the job done to do that
12:47I recognize we need to do more to clarify existing laws and what it's true
12:53California is some of the toughest felony theft thresholds in the nation
12:57We need to do more to go after professional theft rings more forcefully
13:02We look forward to advancing this package of reforms this year
13:06Our work on public safety also means we protect the victims of domestic violence with expanded restraining orders
13:13We've cracked down on ghost guns
13:15We've gone toe-to-toe with the gun lobby and ideological judges who advance their agenda
13:20And we won't stop fighting because protecting Californians is our most important job in 30 years ago
13:28California's gun homicide rate was 50% above the national average now today
13:33It's 33% below the national average
13:36that's because of our gun safety laws and red states refusal to follow California's lead has led to
13:45Catastrophic impacts. Let's put it this way if every state in America and California's gun death rate over the past decade
13:53140,000 Americans would be alive today
13:56That's the cost of fealty to the ideological agenda by the National Rifle Association
14:02140,000 brothers and sisters and sons and daughters mothers and fathers would be alive today
14:09For lawmakers and in red states with respect bravery sometimes just simply means ignoring the best interest of their constituents
14:16I guess in doing whatever the donors and the lobbyists tell them to do. That's not the approach we take in California
14:23But we're facing unprecedented challenges
14:26Not a not a word not a single word from them about the Supreme Court's perversion of the Second Amendment that allows
14:32For example machine guns and weapons of war to proliferate on the streets of America
14:37It's a sickness just a week ago as a proof point
14:42Republicans in the United States Senate's refused to even outlaw bump stocks the same so-called accessory
14:47That a gunman in Las Vegas used to kill 60 people wound over 400 in dislodge over
14:541,000 rounds in just 11 minutes
14:57That's why their states with respect are less safe
15:01Catering to big business and the rich is also why red states tax their lowest earners far more than California does
15:08Those red states punish you while you're struggling, but give you a free pass when you're wealthy. Here's the truth
15:14Here's the truth Republicans will never tell you California's not a high-tax state
15:20Conservative states
15:20this is a fact conservative states tax their poorest residents people struggling with two jobs hospital bills and
15:27Childcare at a higher rate than we tax our wealthiest residents
15:31You pay higher percentage of taxes if you're poor in Texas than you do if you're wealthy in California
15:38It's about who you're fighting for in California. You don't have to be profligate to be progressive
15:44We we understand how to balance budgets while protecting working families children and the most vulnerable in our state
15:50Thanks to our partnership with Senator McGuire and Speaker Revis
15:53We just passed the first ever two-year balanced budget a disciplined approach that keeps California and strong fiscal footing
16:01And while the right wants to strip away protections for working families
16:05We built this economy by valuing the dignity of work cherishing family time in honoring labor unions
16:12You shouldn't have to be a CEO to live a decent life and in California
16:15You don't have to the California spirit means working hard and being rewarded with a paycheck that meets your needs
16:22All of our progress and higher wages and better benefits for working people is not just about the hourly pay
16:28It's about building a future. It's about dignity
16:30It's about respect where everyone is included in our growth growth and inclusion
16:35We're a state that that gives a damn for example about fast-food workers and proudly
16:39So we're predominantly women working two-and-a-half jobs to get by
16:44Because of the leadership of the California legislature these hard workers finally got a raise in the job security that they deserve
16:50And by the way, the companies themselves get a more stable workforce
16:54California's a tentpole with a tentpole the American economy
16:5816% of all of our nation's job creation last month came right here came from the great state of California
17:05Because we value our workers and we value our workforce
17:09But it doesn't end at a paycheck because costs are still too high for too many people our most persistent challenge remains
17:17Affordability the issue that defines more issues in more ways and more days
17:21Remains housing an added stressor of course these days is not just the cost of housing
17:26It's the cost and availability of housing insurance
17:29And we're tackling that with more urgency now than ever moving reforms and new laws quickly to stabilize our insurance market
17:37But homeowner insurance is just one part we know of that larger affordability puzzle for families
17:44We're also doing a lot more
17:46California policies are putting over
17:48$17,000 back into the pockets of families
17:51Offsetting the pressures of inflation cost of groceries child care in so many stresses that people are struggling through
17:58We proudly offer a young child tax credit and expanded earning income tax credit for working families five days of
18:06Paid sick leave eight weeks of family leave. We've created with the legislature's support over
18:14120,000 new child care slots
18:16California's also taking action to protect the students right to learn and a teacher's right to teach in
18:22California we don't just dream about a future where everyone has a chance to get ahead. We aren't passive bystanders
18:28We're creating a new grade a brand new grade to give Californians an early start pre-k for all
18:33Fully finishing the job by
18:362025 we're also building thousands of
18:39Community schools with wraparound services for students and families students will be able to get free meals
18:46Behavioral health family support as well as high-dose tutoring
18:50We're also finally fulfilling the vision of before and after school as well as summer school for all
18:56Investing billions of dollars to make it universal
19:00Around the state we're deploying literacy coaches to thousands of schools and next year all
19:06Kindergarteners will begin routine screenings for reading difficulties such as dyslexia
19:11So we intervene as early as possible these K through 12 reforms are some of the most transformative
19:17Reform policies in our state and some of the most significant happening across the nation
19:23We built a future where everyone can have access to community college for free
19:28And we're ensuring more residents that ever can gain admissions to the University of California in the California state
19:33System all this took commitment and lots of investment
19:36But the payoff is big thousands of young Californians accessing the greatest public higher education system in America
19:44Here's a simple question Republicans if California is such a failed state
19:48Why are four out of the seven most valuable companies in the world based here?
19:51Why does the Bay Area remain the top-ranked region in the world for venture capital?
19:56We've got more business startups in California than any other state in America among the highest average wages than any state in America
20:03We've added 63,000 talk about a wealth factory. We've added 63,000 new millionaires in California since 2019
20:10And when the last few weeks we learned yet again
20:13The California's retained its place as the fifth largest economy in the world
20:17We've achieved record-breaking tourism and our population is growing again
20:23All of these facts all of these facts fly in the face of the California haters
20:28We want to tear us down because they know our success is a spotlight
20:33respectfully on their own failures
20:35California doesn't look away from its toughest problems. We embrace solutions that work and work for most people
20:42Just look last week. We accomplished something that was seemingly impossible reforming the private attorneys general act or Paga
20:48It's a complicated thorny issue that for decades eluded compromise bringing rational reforms and important labor protections at the same time
20:57sensibly managing responsible concerns from small businesses
21:01It's easier to address simple problems, but that's not the California way. I'll give you another example
21:07California embracing big complex issues without flinching
21:10We're in the middle of the largest dam removal project in u.s
21:13History restoring some 400 miles of an historic river in doing so restoring a historic way of life
21:19That has sustained the state for thousands and thousands of years
21:22We fast-tracked the construction the first new large-scale above-ground water storage project sites in over half a century
21:29And we're moving forward the largest climate restoration project in the nation the Delta conveyance
21:37Protecting our water supplies while building resilience for the state's most important ecosystem
21:42We know that protecting the environment improves our economy look no further for proof than California's economic
21:50dominance than the
21:51Revolution that's happening right now with clean cars
21:55California's home to 60 zero emission vehicle headquartered companies now one of our top exports the global EV market
22:03simply would not exist, but for California's clean air leadership a
22:07Regulatory environment has been an accelerator for investment creating certainty and unprecedented investment opportunities
22:14We're creating jobs and whole new industries as we fight climate change. That's California innovation
22:20That's California innovation in action
22:22And we're moving forward in the face of oil funded politicians all around us that are lying to us
22:29They're trying to say that a clean economy somehow is a bad economy
22:33But we're not asserting that we're proving them wrong
22:36We have six times now six times more clean energy jobs than we do fossil fuel jobs at the same time
22:43We're holding big oil accountable and accountable for their lies and accountable for their price gouging
22:49We're suing them we're suing them yes for defiling our planet
22:53But also defending ourselves from their profit driven greed
22:58Drilling their oil rigs next to houses and playgrounds and daycare centers
23:02And we're operating the world's fifth largest economy on a carbon-free engine 90 days since March alone
23:09Proving that clean future isn't only desirable. It's achievable
23:13Even under these attacks. We're writing our own history as the epicenter of global innovation
23:19Let me give you one more potent example
23:22California is transforming and an empty former mall in Los Angeles into a research and
23:26Innovation hub in partnership with Google and UCLA at the site scientists engineers and researchers are are helping solve some of the world's greatest
23:34challenges from the frontiers of
23:36quantum computing to cutting-edge immunology research
23:40We're also home to NVIDIA founded in Sunnyvale in
23:451993 it's now the world's most valuable company as they grow like so many companies like them
23:52They're nurturing a startup ecosystem that will prove to be perhaps the most fertile in economic history
23:59You know, it's no mistake that California is the epicenter of what is called the fourth Industrial Revolution
24:05Artificial intelligence in fact 35 of the world's 50 most exciting largest market cap companies in AI are
24:12right here in California
24:14across the spectrum
24:16California it simply has no peers name an industry and
24:20California dominates vast productive farms and ranches that feed the world in health care and life science and biotech
24:27Bioinnovation and arts and music motion pictures the best minds in the world
24:31They call California home because they're liberated from the constraints of conformity and tradition
24:37This is true freedom to invent and to make the world a better place
24:42California's figured out a way to make it work time and time again decade after decade and in times like these
24:49With deep divisions at home and around the rest of the world. I know it's easy to feel a little bit despair
24:56But I'm hopeful. I'll give you another example of the remarkable people who live in the state thousands of Californians are now
25:04Participating community service programs that connect people through shared experiences. They work towards a common purpose
25:10California's created a college core program that allows students to work up to 450 hours of community service and earn up to
25:17$10,000 at the same time they're gaining valuable job experience
25:21They also are gaining college credit and perhaps most importantly a sense of pride and purpose in meaning and just over the last five years
25:29We've also built more broadly our service core into the largest volunteer organization in the country
25:36Larger now than the US Peace Corps
25:4010,000 members strong with nearly 5 million hours of service every year the people of California
25:46Well, they stunned the world with something new that our detractors
25:49They could never have dreamt of the only surprise is they keep being surprised
25:54In a state with a bigger balance sheet than many nations. It's easy to get lost often in facts and figures
26:01It's easy to forget what our values truly represent what they represent to the United States for that matter to the rest of the world
26:08We're building a future where everyone feels protected everyone feels connected and respected
26:13We're building a state that transforms the world over and over and over again
26:18We're a state that launched a farm worker revolution a free speech revolution a love
26:25revolution a computing revolution a biotech revolution a climate
26:29Revolution and a quantum revolution
26:32that's us weird wild free-spirited, California a place that can elect Ronald Reagan and Jerry Brown back-to-back a
26:40place for
26:41Ayn Rand Jane Fonda from Metallica and Kendrick Lamar a place that can invent the internet and the popsicle blue jeans and
26:49Barbie
26:50California's where the most creative people in the world want to be whether they're born in Salinas
26:56Tuscaloosa or Bangalore a place where a world-class education leads to a world-class job
27:02Where that world-class job leads to a brighter future where standing out makes you outstanding
27:08This is the future California is creating now
27:11We're solving our most pressing problems with enthusiasm resolve and a California spirit that allows us to accomplish anything
27:18anyone who really knows California knows that the state of our state is strong and
27:23Resilient a beacon to the world. Thank you, California