Meg Whitman

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At a campaign stop Tuesday in Roseville, Whitman was asked whether she would consider raising taxes if a natural disaster, such as an earthquake, rocked the state. There is some precedent: After the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, California levied a temporary quarter-cent sales tax for quake relief. She replied: "In a natural disaster, gosh, that's hard to predict. I mean if there was literally an 8.0 earthquake here and we had no way out, gosh, certainly, I wouldn't want to necessarily rule that out. But under normal set of circumstances, I think raising taxes on businesses and individuals is exactly the wrong thing to do."