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4B – Daily News – Tuesday, February 1, 2011 As governor's budget boss, low-key Stanford grad faces high-stakes challenge SACRAMENTO (MCT) — When Jerry Brown first entered the governor's office in January 1975, Ana Matosan- tos was still nine months away from being born. By the time the 72-year-old Brown began his third term as governor earlier this month, however, Matosantos had made California history several times over. She is believed to be the state's first Hispanic finance director, the first open- ly gay one and the first to work for both a Democratic and Republican governor. She's also the youngest. The 35-year-old native of Puerto Rico, who graduated from Stanford in 1997, is playing to rave reviews as she sits in one of the hottest seats in the state Capitol. Without a degree in economics or finance — she holds a bachelor's in political science and feminist studies — she's entrusted with helping turn around a state with the eighth largest economy in the world. At times, it seems she's the only thing Republicans and Democrats can agree on. "She has an encyclopedic knowledge of how California works," said Sen. Sam Blakeslee, R-San Luis Obispo, who worked extensively with Matosantos when he was Assem- bly minority leader. "She rarely shoots from the hip, and she's a very thoughtful person who takes on no airs and treats people with respect — all too uncommon in a place like this." Her predecessor, Republican Mike Genest, tapped Matosantos, a registered Democrat, to be chief deputy for budgets in April 2008. And when he decided to leave the post in late 2009, Genest urged then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to give her the No. 1 job in the finance department. "He had some moments of, 'Isn't she a little young?' " Genest said. "But ultimately, he knew that's a surface con- cern. You don't care how old she is. You just want to know if she can handle the job." Genest had watched Matosantos in action as she moved through the Capitol at lightning speed, working as a consul- tant to the Senate Health and Human Services and budget committees and as a top aide to Schwarzenegger. "She's had an unusual level of exposure to state govern- ment for someone her age," Genest said. "And, frankly, she's brilliant." In her modest, low-key style, Matosantos brushes off much of the praise with a just-the-facts assessment that she believes she can help turn things around. Matosantos may lean left-of-center politically, but she maintains that her ideology doesn't affect the various budget scenarios she has presented to Brown. "The goal of a finance director is to give the governor as many options as possible," she said during an hourlong interview in her Capitol office. Then, "the governor makes the decisions." Tom Campbell, the former Silicon Valley congressman TEHAMA ESTATES PROVIDES: Active Senior Citizens A Retirement Community for the ◆ Independent Living ◆ Private Apartments ◆ Three Nutritious Meals Daily ◆ 24 Hour Secure Environment ◆ House Keeping Services ◆ Warm & Friendly Staff ◆ Recreational Programs ◆ Scheduled Transportation ◆ Private & Formal Dining Rooms EQUAL HOUSING OPPORTUNITY 750 David Avenue, Red Bluff • 527-9193 MCT photo Director of the California Department of Finance Ana Matosantos, left, walks with California Gov. Jerry Brown inside the Capitol. who was Schwarzenegger's second finance director, says the key to the high-pressure job is "to have the confidence of the governor and his chief of staff. You are telling the story that they want people to hear. And, of course, you have to have credibility. You can't pretend revenue will grow by 12 per- cent when the truth is it's going to fall." Campbell has a doctorate in economics from the Univer- sity of Chicago. But, he said, when you come right down to it, all the degrees in the world don't really matter when it comes to succeeding in the post. Indeed, belying her youth, Matosantos comes across one- on-one as a wizened veteran of the state's budget wars. "I started working for the Department of Finance right before the largest economic downturn since the Great Depression," she noted. Nor has it been an easy road since Brown took office: The interview took place at night because Matosantos had spent the morning briefing officials of Moody's Investors Service, the credit-rating agency, before being summoned to an eight-hour meeting with Brown. The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office had some quibbles with Brown's budget, released a week after he came into office. But overall, the $84 billion plan, with Matosan- tos' fingerprints all over it, got high marks for its lack of gim- micks disguising the size of the deficit, now estimated at more than $25 billion over the near 18 months. "It's an honest budget that's not only balanced this year but also in the out years," Matosantos said. The state's new spending plan is a pay-the-piper kind of affair, one that has been a long time coming. The adminis- tration is proposing deep cuts to social services and higher education, hoping voters will extend temporary taxes in a special June election to avoid slashing K-12 education. Matosantos grew up in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, the daughter of a high school principal and a small-business Ashley Stever Financial Advisor 1010 Jefferson St., Red Bluff New Patient Special $ for Consult and Xrays! Moore & Pascarella 527-7800 4900 GROWNEY MOTORS 530-527-1034 Expires 1/31/2011 108 Main St., Suite B Next to Little Caesars Red Bluff, CA 96080 Bus. 530-527-9560 TF. 866-527-9560 Fax 877-898-1030 ashley.stever@edwardjones.com www.edwardjones.com YOUR PET FOOD SOURCE Meet & Greet all day Sat., Jan. 29 9am-4pm EVERYDAY 9:00am to 6:00pm RustiesGranny® Your “Eco” Choice for Dog Beds 345 So. Main Street • Red Bluff • 527-4588 COME TO US FOR ALL YOUR PET SUPPLIES! 0 % financing, OAC January 2011 Buick Regal We aim to please 0% APR for 72 MONTHS On selected 2010 GM models NEW & USED SALES • PROFESSIONAL SERVICE • QUALITY PARTS 1160 Main Street, Red Bluff Clearance up50%-60%to Savings Names you can trust on select items 12 month, OPEN owner. When she arrived at Stanford in September 1993, she thought she'd become a civil or mechanical engineer, inspired in part by her maternal grandfather — an engineer who during wartime learned how to make repairs when he ran out of spare parts. "I always enjoyed understanding how things fit together and figuring out how to fix things," Matosantos said. It could be an apt metaphor for her current challenge. While at Stanford, she flirted with the idea of going to medical school or getting a doctorate in history before decid- ing she would probably go to law school. But she also began planting the seeds of a career in public service: She tutored kids in East Palo Alto and worked on several community projects there. "She was actively out there looking at what government did," said Estelle Freedman, a Stanford history professor who was director of the feminist studies program at the time. "I remember Ana just being really comfortable in her own skin." Friends from her days on The Farm remember her as a warm and caring person who seemed wise beyond her years. Steven Aronowitz, a San Francisco management consul- tant who once lived in a dorm where Matosantos was a res- ident assistant, recalled a dorm ski trip in which she drove the rental van back from Tahoe for 12 hours, much of the time through a snowstorm. As other students got cranky and fought over what station to listen to on the radio, she made jokes about their grouchiness, "balancing out the mood with good humor," he said. Fellow students often turned to her for advice, Aronowitz said, "and she would tell it like it is, not necessarily telling you what you wanted to hear." Some things haven't changed over the years. "She's pretty direct," even when the news is bad, said Carmela Castellano-Garcia, executive director of the Cali- fornia Primary Care Association, a group that advocates for community health clinics. Castellano-Garcia has dealt with Matosantos for more than a decade. "Over time, I've seen her come into her own in positions of increasing responsibility," Castellano-Garcia said. "But taking on a position like this, during these tumultuous times, will be the challenge of her career." gibbsautobodydsl@chiconet.com 780 EAST AVE. (behind Food Maxx) Since 1950 530-527-2649 WE ACCEPT ALL INSURANCE COMPANIES Voted BEST in Tehama County ‘06, ‘07, ‘08, ‘09 & ‘10 We understand you have a choice, thank you for choosing us! Do You Suffer From . . . 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