Opinion: Jerry Brown’s rapid response to Sarah Palin

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That was quick: The Jerry Brown campaign released a video today using the comments by Sarah Palin I blogged about Thursday.

Brown is right to take on Palin over her fact-less punditry, but responding to her attack by touting the “$5 billion rainy day fund” (check out the screen shot to the right) amassed under his watch is misleading. Sacramento may have been awash in cash before the Howard Jarvis-led tax revolt, but the former two-term governor’s insistence on setting money aside was a big reason voters fed up with rising property tax bills in the face of budget surpluses passed Proposition 13 in 1978.

And after Prop. 13? By the time Republican George Deukmejian succeeded Brown as governor in 1983, the rainy day fund was in the hole by nearly $600 million.

-- Paul Thornton