Jerry Brown

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So could Ms. Whitman expect a state income tax increase if you become governor? No, I think the income tax is contributing an excessive amount to the state budget. When I was governor, the income tax was lower than the sales tax. It was about 33 percent of the general fund. Now it’s 55 percent. It’s far too unstable, and the tax base has to be broader than it is today. No, California taxes are very high on high-wealth individuals. They’re higher than they are in the rest of the country [except for Hawaii and Oregon]. If you make California such a high-tax state, you’re going to deter investment, and you’re going to deter people from wanting to live here. I mean, we’re in a competitive world. We can create a little island called California. If Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, and Texas all get to have less taxes, and if that’s where all of our business goes, we’re going to have even more of a problem than we do now. It’s really a loser to follow that path.