California may lean left, but Meg Whitman promised Tuesday that if elected, she would govern from the “right of center” and offered a few new details on her business-friendly agenda to repair the state’s financial ship.
In a wide-ranging and at times contentious interview with the Mercury News editorial board, the Republican nominee for governor reiterated her pledge to eliminate the sales tax businesses pay on equipment purchases — even though that would slam many financially strapped cities in Silicon Valley. Doing so, she said, is key to restoring the state’s competitiveness.
The former eBay CEO also said that had she been governor in 2006, she would have signed the state’s landmark global-warming bill — but, she added, if it were on her desk as governor today, she’d “probably” veto it.
Why the difference? When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed AB 32 four years ago, she noted, unemployment wasn’t nearly as high as it is today.