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(Photo above left) Meg Whitman, Republican candidate for Governor of California, stopped by the Santa Paula Water Recycling Facility Wednesday and presented her plan to revitalize the State of California. She asked the audience gathered to look at her plan outlined in her magazine “Building a new California” Meg Whitman’s policy agenda. Her main focus during her stop was to talk about Jobs. (Above right) Meg Whitman, the Republican gubernatorial candidate visited Santa Paula Wednesday to tour the city’s newly opened wastewater plant and tell supporters of her three-pronged plan for saving California. Whitman stayed around and met many Santa Paulans answering questions and having pictures taken. |
Meg Whitman addresses supporters at SP’s wastewater treatment plant
July 02, 2010
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula News
Meg Whitman, the Republican gubernatorial candidate, visited Santa Paula Wednesday to tour the city’s newly opened wastewater plant and tell supporters of her three-pronged plan for saving California. Whitman will face off against Democrat Jerry Brown, the former governor and Oakland mayor, in November. She has reportedly already invested more than $120 million in her campaign.
Whitman told dozens of supporters, businesspeople and Santa Paula elected officials and staffers that jobs are her number one priority, as “If we don’t get Californians back to work” the state would fail. Accompanied by Brian Cullen, PERC president and Philip Dyk of Alinda Capital Partners, the builder and financial arm for the new plant, Whitman toured the facility and then spoke about her plans for the Golden State.
California, she said, is “bleeding jobs” to Arizona, Texas and several other states that have a friendlier and cheaper business atmosphere, as California is “the toughest state to do business in.” Whitman was introduced by Cullen, who noted that when the former eBay CEO joined the then-startup Internet company “she made history... her belief is it will take fiscal restraint to rebuild California.”
Whitman said her stay-at-home mother who during World War II became an airplane and truck mechanic heavily influenced her. Her foray into politics came about because Whitman “refused to sit back and watch California fail.”
And Whitman said the state is on the road to just that, with a 12.5 percent third highest unemployment rate in the nation, a $20 billion deficit, eroding infrastructure, and K-12 education “ranked near the bottom of the barrel” when in decades past the school system was among the highest in the nation. Yet, she said, “We can absolutely turn this around” through a combination of eliminating the “strangling” business regulations, cutting 40,000 unspecified state jobs from the approximately 335,000 workforce, and improving education by cutting into the 40 percent of administration and overhead budget and returning dollars to the classroom.
If elected, Whitman said the “first thing” she would do is impose a moratorium on all new business regulations, and then “sort out this mess.” In a news conference after her speech, Whitman said she could cut $15 billion out of the state’s deficit by state layoffs and reforms of the pension system, limiting welfare benefits, and streamlining government for efficiency. Similar strategies have been tried by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger -now at the end of office term limits - but the courts, voters and the Legislature, which failed to make its Wednesday budget deadline, have stopped many.
Some expressed some disappointment that Whitman didn’t mention Santa Paula in her remarks, but she was invited back to tour the city.
During the press conference Whitman was questioned by former Mayor and Santa Paula Times newspaperman Don Johnson about cities and counties being paid back by the state, which has been withholding, “borrowing” and changing law to retain municipal funding. The state, Johnson told Whitman, “Is trying to balance the budget on the backs of the cities,” a stance Whitman agreed with. But the press conference ended when he asked when the money-grabs - which have cost Santa Paula millions and plunged it into a deficit - would be repaid.
Mayor Jim Tovias, Vice Mayor Fred Robinson and Councilmen Ralph Fernandez and Bob Gonzales attended the event, and Tovias said he gave Whitman information on upcoming Santa Paula activities, including the Citrus Classic Balloon Festival. “We’re proud of Santa Paula,” said Tovias, “it’s a wonderful place.”
Dyk said he was impressed by Whitman’s grasp of the DBOF (Design/Build/Operate/Finance) process used to construct the wastewater treatment plant, especially as “We want to do more of these in California.”
Cullen noted the gubernatorial candidate was “intrigued by the technology and focused on the energy efficiency” of the plant, finished before its deadline and already fully operational.
