Gubernatorial Candidate Steve Poizner Visits Business Owners in Rancho Cordova

This morning in the back storage facility of local business Express Office Products Steve Poizner spelled out his plan for revitalizing California’s lagging economy. The current Insurance Commissioner and Gubernatorial candidate spoke with about a dozen attendees from the local business community.

The primary tenent of Mr. Poizner’s campaign is a plan dubbed 10-10-10 and includes tax cuts, state spending cuts, and building a surplus. The first 10 in the plan calls for 10% tax cuts to personal and corporate tax rates and a 50% reduction in the capital gains tax rate. The second 10 calls for a reduction in state spending of 10%, which is currently 85 billion dollars. This figure is down from over 110 billion just a few years ago. The third 10 calls for building up a state surplus of 10 billion dollars to smooth out the ups and downs in the California economy.

Mr. Poizner stressed that job growth and reigniting the California economy are a central focus of his campaign. The official unemployment rate in California is now 12.2% and much higher in some counties and cities. This unemployment rate does not factor in the part-time and under-employed populations which could increase the rate to as much as 20%. The California unemployment rate is 2.5% higher than the national average. The current unemployment rate means 4 million Californians are out of work and in the past year alone we’ve lost 750,000 jobs”, said Poizner.

The economy is also affecting the population of California according to Candidate Poizner. He stated that each week California loses 3,000 net residents to other states. In the last year, stated Poizner, “California lost nearly 1 million people”. All of these job losses and residents moving out of state has dropped California’s standing in the world economy. In 1996 California had the 6th largest economy in the world, now California is ranked as the 8th largest.

Many of the attendees at the business roundtable had complaints about high taxes, too much government regulation, and costly worker’s compensation costs. Poizner stressed the need for tax reductions, tort reform, regulatory reform, labor law reform, and environmental regulations which are in line with the rest of the nation. Poizner emphasized the need to reduce the overall tax burden on stressed Californian’s. “Of the 900 state and local taxes and fees in California, given the current state population, each resident pays $5,000 in taxes each year, more than double some neighboring states”, according to Poizner.

It is clear from the current economic conditions and was reinforced by the views of local business leaders that California is in dire need of economic reform which may take many years. The outstanding question in most people’s minds is – is this state and the government elected to run it capable of real reform. Many would argue that too many promising reforms are never realized due to entrenched political parties, special interests, labor unions, and a myriad of problems too big to solve. The optimistic side of me though hopes it’s not too late.

Similar Posts:

August 6, 2010 – Four Candidates File for Two Open City Council Seats in Rancho Cordova
June 3, 2010 – Rep. Matsui Speaks with Rancho Cordova Seniors About Financial Reform, Health Insurance Legislation and the Seniors’ Bill of Rights
June 10, 2010 – Rancho Cordova’s Team to Participate in All-America City Finals Competition
July 20, 2010 – Rancho Cordova Real Estate Report – July 2010
June 17, 2010 – Rancho Cordova Real Estate Report – June 2010

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Posted by Geoffrey Sakala on Oct 30 2009. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.