Jerry Brown's California: Five big changes from 1975 to 2011

Once California’s youngest governor, Jerry Brown begins a second term Monday as the state’s oldest.

California as employer

Robert Durell/Reuters
Jerry Brown (l.) is sworn as governor of California as his wife, Anne Gust Brown, holds a Bible and California Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye administers the oath of office in Sacramento on Monday.

Nationally, the 1970s were marked by tumultuous labor strikes and increases in employee benefits and compensation. In California, Brown boosted state employee pay by 8.5 percent, cut the governor’s office budget by $210,000, and slashed funding for California’s state universities.

Today, Brown will again target higher education for cuts, decrease his administration’s spending by $5 million, and seek to create jobs in both the private and public sectors. California currently has 350,609 state employees – at least 140,000 more workers than it had in 1975, when there were 206,361.

5 of 5
You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.