What Is Jerry Brown's Net Worth?
Jerry Brown is an American lawyer, author, and politician who has a net worth of $10 million. Jerry Brown is best known for being the fourth longest-serving governor in the history of the United States, for establishing the first agricultural labor relations law in the country, and for kick-starting national debates concerning climate change. Having repealed a California law that criminalized adult homosexual relationships and signed a bill that allowed the terminally ill to peacefully end their own lives, Brown often created an atmosphere loud with both applause and jeers.
Early Years
Edmund Gerald Brown Jr. was born on April 7, 1938, in San Francisco, California. He is the only son of Bernice (Layne) and Edmund Gerald "Pat" Brown Sr., an American lawyer and politician who went on to serve as the 32nd governor of California.
In 1955, Brown graduated from St. Ignatius High School, a private Catholic preparatory school in San Francisco. While a student there, he was part of the California Cadet Corps, a paramilitary youth organization attached to the California Youth and Community Programs Task Force. Later that year, Jerry began attending Santa Clara University, a private Jesuit university in Santa Clara, California. He left there after one year to study at Sacred Heart Novitiate in Los Gatos, California, with the intention of becoming a Catholic priest. He remained there for four years before enrolling at the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Classics in 1961. He then attended Yale Law School in New Haven, Connecticut, and graduated with a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1964. Following law school, he began working for the California Supreme Court as a law clerk for Justice Matthew Tobriner.
After two attempts, Brown passed the bar exam and joined the law firm of Tuttle & Taylor. In 1969, he and 123 others ran for the Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees. He came in first and served on the board until 1971. In 1970, he was elected to serve as California's 23rd Secretary of State.
A Life in Politics
A member of the Democratic Party, Jerry Brown served as the 34th and 39th governor of California from 1975 to 1983 and from 2011 to 2019. He became the fourth longest-serving governor in American history, serving over 16 years. He was known for his fiscal restraint and refused many of the privileges offered to him as governor. Jerry chose to drive his own car instead of being chauffeured and rented his own apartment instead of being housed in a newly built, lavish Governor's residence in Carmichael, California. His manner of handling finances resulted in a state budget surplus of about $5 billion.
As governor, Brown reorganized the California Arts Council and increased its funding by 1,300 percent. He was also greatly concerned with environmental issues, sponsoring a tax incentive for solar rooftops in 1977. He appointed more women and minorities to office than any other California governor.
Brown opposed the death penalty, tax breaks for California's oil industrialists, and the 1975 Vietnamese immigration to California. He publicly stated that it did not make sense to bring half a million foreigners into the state when there were a million Californians out of work and financially struggling. He also supported and signed the Consenting Adult Sex Law, a piece of California legislation that decriminalized homosexual behavior between consenting adults.
Brown supported increasing funds for America's space program, mandatory non-military national service for American youth, expanding the use of acupuncture and midwifery in health services, and giving tax credits to non-smokers and others who avoided unhealthy habits. His political slogan was "Protect the earth, serve the people, and explore the universe."
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1992 Presidential Election
An initial unsuccessful attempt at gaining a presidential nomination was followed by another in 1992, in which Brown lost the primary to the eventual 42nd president of the United States, Bill Clinton. Jerry then relocated to Oakland, California, where he constructed a massive complex that would serve as both his residence and his place of work. From there, he launched a national radio talk show that was broadcast until 1997.
Brown served as mayor of Oakland from 1999 to 2007 and Attorney General of California from 2007 to 2011. As mayor, he refurbished the 2,800-seat Fox Theatre, the neighborhood of Jack London Square, and the Port of Oakland, revitalizing a city that had been emptying itself of residents and businesses. Jerry also constructed affordable housing and attracted over 10,000 new residents to Oakland. Additionally, he established the Oakland School for the Arts and the Oakland Military Institute, two new charter schools.
On January 3, 2011, Brown was sworn in for his third term as governor. The following year, he signed legislation that prohibited anyone from protesting closer than 300 feet from a funeral in response to the Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church's ongoing public protests against homosexuals – dead and alive.
On September 16, 2014, Jerry signed the three-bill package of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, which implemented plans to achieve water sustainability in California.
In October 2015, Brown signed the California End of Life Option Act, which allowed terminally ill adult residents of California to access lethal drugs that could be self-administered to bring about death. He announced that while he suffered over the ethical issues of signing such a document, he did not feel he had a right to prevent the terminally ill from choosing their own fates.
In 2016, Brown vetoed bills that would have exempted items such as menstrual pads, tampons, and diapers from sales tax, arguing that such bills would reduce state revenue annually by about $300 million.
In 2017, Jerry passed the California Sanctuary Law, Senate Bill 54, which prevents state and local law enforcement agencies from using their resources to meet any requests of the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement to retain illegal immigrants for deportation. He also passed the Road Repair Accountability Act to repair roads, improve traffic safety, and expand public transit systems across California.
Brown is chair of the University of California at Berkeley's California-China Climate Institute, which engages with China on climate change concerns.
Personal Life
Jerry once dated American singer Linda Ronstadt. In 1990, he began dating American business executive Anne Gust. He and Gust became engaged in 2005 and married on June 18th of that year in Oakland's Rotunda Building. The ceremony was officiated by Senator Dianne Feinstein. Later that day, the couple held a Catholic wedding ceremony at a Roman Catholic Church in San Francisco.
Real Estate
In 2007, Jerry paid $2.45 million for a home in Oakland, California. He sold this home in August 2016 for $2.35 million.
His primary residence is a 2,514-acre ranch in the town of Williams, California, in Colusa County. The ranch has been in the Brown family for over 150 years. Here is a local news interview with Jerry in which he gives a tour of the ranch:
