The people had spoken, the medicine was palpable.
The people had spoken, the medicine was palpable.

– Governor Jerry Brown – address to State – June 8, 1978 – Gordon Skene Sound Collection.

With the infamous Proposition 13 passed – this June 8th in 1978 was about the scramble to address the issue, the emergency measures to be implemented before the law was to go into effect on July 1st and to give an assessment of what all this meant to the people of California.

And so Governor Jerry Brown went before the State Legislature, and in an address which was broadcast throughout the state, laid out the plan which California had to follow.

As is the case with most quick-fixes, the short term looks promising while the long term, not so much. The voters wanted solutions and they wanted them yesterday – and they demanded those solutions be implemented. The motivator was fear and impending doom if Prop. 13 hadn’t been passed – stories of foreclosures and seizures and millions of homeless would be the result if Prop. 13 didn’t pass.

So the Fear Factor won out and Governor Brown was put in the position of having to come up with a plan.

For a little over 11 minutes, Governor Brown laid out the issue – and the rest would be history.

Here is that address from June 8, 1978.