Meg Whitman Talks Tough And Pledges

Meg Whitman declared her candidacy to become California's next governor --and its first woman governor-- on Tuesday, and on Wednesday she was on my radio show talking in great detail about her agenda.  The transcript of our conversation yesterday is here, and the transcript of our much longer conversation from last May is here and here.

When we spoke in late spring, it was a biographical interview, the same sort I have done in February with her likely toughest opponent in the primary, Steve Poizner. 

Yesterday's conversation with Whitman was about the key issues facing California, and the most important one is the devastating tax burden driving out businesses and depressing growth while accounting for the 12% unemployment in the state.  Step one in any recovery has to be stopping and reversing the enormous taxing appetite of Sacramento.  So my first specific question was whether Meg Whitman had signed on to the Americans for tax reform pledge:

HH: One of your opponents, Steve Poizner, has said on other places he signed the no tax pledge and that you haven’t. Is that true? Haven’t you signed the ATR pledge?

MW: I did sign the ATR pledge. Yup, we faxed it in, and they have it.

HH: All right. So you are on record, no tax hikes under a Meg Whitman governorship?

MW: Correct.

That's exactly the right answer, but what about tax cuts?

HH: All right, in terms of cutting taxes, which taxes would you suggest be first to put to the legislature to cut?