GOV. JERRY BROWN

"We're talking about a balanced budget; we're talking about living within our means. This is new. This is a breakthrough." — on California's financial condition.

"I want to avoid the boom and the bust, the borrow and the spend, we make a promise and we take it back." — on controlling spending.

"We do have to invest and we have to spend some money. But I'm going to try to spend it wisely." — on proposing a 5 percent increase in state spending.

"Growing up in Compton or Richmond is not like it is to grow up in Los Gatos or Beverly Hills or Piedmont." — on his proposal to send more money to schools in lower-income communities.

"I think that what President Obama did was historic, it was heroic and I'm going to do everything I can to be a good partner in making sure everything works." — on implementing federal health care reform.

"I would like at this stage in my life, as I like to say, to do something that would make California a leader of what America has to do, and that is both fiscal discipline and imaginative investment in technology and society, environment and all the rest." — on working with both Democrats and Republicans to push for big ideas.

LAWMAKER REACTIONS

"The way in which we have operated is in stark contrast to how they've operated in Washington, D.C., and in some other states. ... Our job is not done. We have to continue to exercise that kind of discipline. We have to not only balance the budget, but pay down the debt." — Assembly Speaker John Perez, D-Los Angeles.

"Governor Brown is right: We must keep the brakes on and live within our means. He is also right that Democrats are going to have a hard time saying no to new spending, and only time will tell if the supermajority will have the fortitude to do so." — Sen. Bill Emmerson, R-Redlands, vice chairman of the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee.

"It's a relief to be able to think about restoring some services instead of cutting them." — Assembly Speaker Pro Tem Nora Campos, D-San Jose.