California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, a Republican candidate for governor in 2010, visited a commission meeting in San Francisco today and called for the cutting of taxes, which he says would reignite economic growth in the state.
Poizner spoke outside a meeting of the Commission on the 21st Century Economy, a bipartisan commission established by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to suggest changes to state and local revenue laws.
He said that while the commission is still coming to a consensus on what they will endorse, he is pushing for tax cuts, and will make it a cornerstone of his campaign for governor.
“I think the tax rates in the state of California are too high,” Poizner said. “I think it’ll be impossible to fix our budget problems in the state of California until we actually reduce the tax rates.”
Poizner said California’s unemployment rate of 11.5 percent is one of the highest in the country, and that cutting taxes will create jobs, and help attract businesses that contribute to the tax base.
Poizner, a Los Gatos resident, earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Texas and a master’s degree from Stanford University, and founded several technology companies before being elected as insurance commissioner in 2006.
