Whitman talks jobs, government reform to chamber audience
| Tuesday, Mar 02 2010 06:21 PM
Last Updated Tuesday, Mar 02 2010 07:44 PM
ONE-ON-ONE WITH WHITMAN
Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman took a few minutes for a one-on-one interview with The Californian Tuesday night where we asked some reader-submitted questions. Here are those questions, suggested on the “Politics, anyone?” blog, and paraphrased answers:
Q: Senator Dianne Feinstein has suggested legislation guaranteeing more water for struggling farmers in the San Joaquin Valley. Do you back it?
A: The water issue is perhaps the most important issue in the Central Valley and Bakersfield. My priority is to turn the water back on. We have got to solve the water storage problem. However, I have not read the final language of that bill to comment on it.
Q: The California Democratic Party distributed a certificate of certified assessment issued by the state of Massachusetts showing it assessed you $1,648.58 for failing to pay taxes on your household staff in Massachusetts from 1995 to 1999 or hadn't filed contribution reports for that period. Can you address that?
A: This is ridiculous. This was a $300 clerical error paid over 10 years ago. It’s the classic Democrats trying to stir up trouble. This is nothing.
Q: The state education system is struggling. What immediate plans do you have to relieve school budget deficits, cuts and layoffs?
A: It is not acceptable to deny the children an education and an opportunity of the American dream. The problem isn’t the amount of money allocated, but how it is spent. I plan to give more accountability to local school districts. Sixty percent of allocated money is spent on the classrooms. The other 40 percent is used on administration and overhead. That is remarkable. More should go to the classroom. That’s where the kids are.
Q: You’ve been criticized for avoiding open interviews and debates. Would this continue if you win the governorship?
A: I’ve been a full-time candidate for a year now. I’ve done 175 press interviews, six today and more than 300 campaign events. I have two upcoming debates scheduled. I think I’ve been easily accessible. It’s important for me to meet residents from all over the state.
Q: You say you want to cut taxes. How do you plan to do this without adding to the perennial budget deficit?
A: It’s important to create jobs without busting the budget. We can eliminate a $800 business start-up fee. We can eliminate factory taxes, which would bring jobs lost back to California, and cut government spending across the board.
Q: Give some specifics as to what you think you will be able to cut from the budget. After all, you have to work with the Democrats.
A: I’ve been a business person for 30 years. We’re not running the government effectively and efficiently. We need to do more with less and find fraud in the system, specifically in Medicare and Medi-Cal. We need to shrink the size of state government employees by 40,000. Pensions are the big train coming down the railroad track. And we need to reform the welfare system.
Q: You say California needs to create more jobs, but you plan on cutting 40,000 state employees. Isn’t that contradictory?
A: We can create more jobs in the private sector which will pay for jobs lost in the public sector.
Images
Governor candidate Meg Whitman addresses businesspeople at the Bakersfield Chamber of Commerce Tuesday afternoon.
The keys to getting California back on track are creating jobs, decreasing government spending and reforming K-12 education, Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman told a room full of local businesspeople Tuesday at the Bakersfield Chamber of Commerce downtown.
"We can change the direction of the state, but it won't be easy," said the 53-year-old former chief executive of eBay.
With a little more three months before the June 8 California primary, Whitman made a campaign stop here to garner votes from the largely Republican Central Valley.
In the primary she's facing off most notably against California State Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner. If she wins she's likely to battle state Attorney General Jerry Brown, who formerly announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination Tuesday, in the November general election.
Speaking to business owners, consultants, representatives of politicians and the media, Whitman talked about her family, her work experience and what she plans to do if elected.
The billionaire mother of two and wife of a Stanford University Medical Center neurosurgeon said she became interested in politics after campaigning for Mitt Romney and John McCain. Her background, however, is business, she said.
"I'm not a politician," said Whitman, who is funding much of her own campaign. "I'm a businesswoman."
A business mind is necessary, she said, to tackle a current state budget deficit of billions. The job difficulty, she said, is a 12 on a 1-to-10 scale. Her priorities and plans include:
* Jobs: "If we don't put people back to work in California, there is no way out of this," said Whitman, who grew eBay from a company with 15 employees to one with more than 15,000. She'd focus on creating jobs in the private sector, reducing taxes and halting certain regulations.
* Decreasing government spending: "We do not have a revenue problem. We have a spending problem of epic proportions," she said. She'd reduce the state workforce and veto "frivolous" bills.
* K-12 education: "We have to turn around a second-rate education (system)," she said. She called for grading schools on an A-to-F scale, creating more charter schools, paying "better teachers more" and giving more control of money to local districts.
Whitman's speech came just hours after Brown announced his candidacy. She called Brown a "career politician." Brown was governor of California from 1975 to 1983.
"In my view, it was not a great run," she told the crowd.
Brown, in his video announcement, said the governor position calls for someone like himself -- a person with insider knowledge, but an outsider's mind.
Whitman issued a statement following that announcement blasting him for "failed experiments, undelivered promises, big government spending and higher taxes." She issued a seven-page document of "fiscal failures." Whitman has also attacked Poizner in paid advertisements.
After speaking to the chamber of commerce, she took questions regarding green business, job growth, agriculture, water, labor laws and education, among others.
She said California must work to retain jobs being lost to other states, put a moratorium on regulations and keep the public university system in tact.
Addressing agriculture and water issues, Whitman said, "if we could turn the water back on, it would create jobs automatically" and that "we have to let the water run here."
At the end, she called for help from voters to take on the "giant undertaking" of fixing California.
"We can become the Golden State again," Whitman said.
