Posted on 06/02/2009 8:48:59 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Last month we talked to Mitch Zak, spokesman for the Whitman for Governor campaign. The conversation took place after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's order to lay off 5,000 state workers and before he proposed cutting state employee wages by 5 percent:
On charges that Whitman dislikes state workers or is pandering to conservatives who want to dismantle state government:Meg's committed to reducing the bureaucracy by 10 percent. We're not suggesting that these are bad people or bad employees, but that the government can't afford the bureaucracy.
On criticisms that making a 10 percent cut across the board would be difficult or impossible: There's a difference between difficult and necessary. It will be a tough thing to do but it's the right thing to do. ... We need to set aggressive yet achievable goals and then have the discipline to achieve them. It's not a matter of whether we can do it; it's matter of having to do it.
On how Whitman would cut payroll, including areas such as the university systems, that are outside the governor's control: She is talking about a total reduction to California state payroll. That's part of what a governor is supposed to do. Obviously, the first is your own team, making political appointments (that support the agenda), building legislative relationships and use of the line-item veto.
On Whitman's comments that Schwarzenegger's layoff order didn't go far enough: Every time she's asked about the governor, she says she has tremendous respect for him. ... That said, given that obviously she feels like state spending needs to be controlled as well as the bureaucracy's growth, that's not how she would have approached (the budget) as governor.
On state employee labor unions: We're not for or against public unions. We're pro-efficiency and pro-effectiveness.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
That sound you hear is the sound of leftist heads exploding all across L.A. and San Francisco.
Until they start the actual reductions, this is just campaign talk. The Austrian jackass has avoided public employee layoffs like the plague. It is obvious he is beholden to the unions.
Whitman constantly raised fees and cut services on eBay while she was in charge. I find her credibility doubtful.
More importantly, if the standards of private industry are meticulously adopted (primarily weeding out the incompetent and criminal), the state doesn't need a bureaucracy that size.
Is there a real conservative in CA?
“Is there a real conservative in CA?”
Ronald Reagan, Presidential Library in Simi Valley, CA
He lives on (when Bush can’t be blamed)!
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