Brown kept a positive spin on the financial future of California while speaking to business leaders.

He talked about the need to build high-speed rail, to fix California's water system, and to make the necessary budget cuts to get California's economy rolling again.

Gov. Brown:  "I'm going to get it done, we'll make compromises where we need, but we're going to build for the future, we're not going to steal from it and we're going to know that California once again is the example, is the leader and we'll maybe set an example for those folks in Washington to clean up their act as we have cleaned up ours."

The Governor also told business leaders his proposed tax initiative is a better alternative than more cuts to schools and universities.