September
20, 2010
Meg Whitman talks pensions, prisons, unions with Bee
editorial board
Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman
told The Sacramento Bee editorial board this morning that, if elected, she'll
negotiate with the three biggest public employee unions
to create 401(k)-style retirement plans for new state workers.
She also said she would
"take a whack" at reining in the state's prison costs, including
moving prisoners to other states and cutting prison health care costs.
She added that she would
seek pension reforms for prison guards, while other public safety employees would
be exempt from such changes. Whitman also said she could see building another
prison if elected governor but would try to avoid building a new "death
row" prison.
"Part of the reason we
find ourselves in the situation we now find ourselves in is we had banked on a
very high investment portfolio return, which didn't materialize, and now we are
on the hook for defined benefits, very generous defined benefits, to not only
the prison guards but all the others," Whitman said. "We have got to
renegotiate these benefits. And I will negotiate in good faith with all the
different unions."
In response to a question
from the editorial board, Whitman also said she wanted to "look at what
the opportunities are for privatizing the prisons."
Whitman admitted that
enacting such reforms wouldn't happen overnight but said she was optimistic she
could make a quick impact. She said she would consider putting pension reform
on the ballot.
"It's going to take
some time," Whitman said. "There's no questions about it. But I think
we can make a lot of progress in the first 12 months... about attacking, if you
will, how to run the government more efficiently, how to take on the pensions,
how to reform welfare."
When asked about
Proposition 23, which would suspend the state's global warming law AB 32,
Whitman said she would release a list of her proposition positions at the end
of this week or at the start of next week.
Whitman also said she
wanted to change the initiative process.
"I do think it needs
to be harder to get initiatives on the ballot," Whitman said. "I
think we got to make it very clear to people what the trade-offs are" if
voters decide to spend money on a program. She didn't specify how she would
make such trade-offs clear to voters.
When asked about campaign finance reform, Whitman said she didn't have
any specific changes to suggest. Whitman last week became the biggest
self-funding candidate in U.S. history, giving her campaign more than $119
million.
"So campaign finance
law is pretty complicated," Whitman said. "I haven't spent a lot of
time on what I would recommend about campaign finance law in California."
She did criticize campaign
spending by public employee unions and called Democratic rival Jerry Brown
a union shill.
"I wanted to invest to
make sure that people understood what my plan for California
is," Whitman said. "People are very smart. You can't buy elections,
but you can, I think, let people know where you stand. You can't buy elections,
as I said, but candidates can be bought and sold. And Jerry Brown has bought
and sold by the public employee unions."
Brown spokesman Sterling
Clifford replied that her charge was "ridiculous and untrue."
"Bought or not, Meg Whitman has admitted she is in the pockets of the big
banks on Wall Street and will be looking out for their interests." he
said.
Finally, when asked what
she would do her first day in office, Whitman responded: "On my first day
in office, I want to put a moratorium on all new regulations ... I want to take
on the regulatory climate in California."
Photo: Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman meets The Sacramento Bee
editorial board Sept. 20, 2010. (Hector Amezcua/Sacramento Bee)
Categories: AG Jerry Brown, Governor 2010, Meg Whitman, Prisons
Read more: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2010/09/meg-whitman-talks-pensions-pri.html#ixzz106kxWHOR