HP benefited from state tax breaks while Fiorina was CEO

The U.S. Senate candidate says California has a business-hostile tax structure that was a reason she outsourced thousands of jobs while head of Hewlett-Packard. Yet during her reign the firm was one of 21 that got a state sales tax refund even after having already offset some income tax bills.

By Scott Gold,
Los Angeles Times
October 21, 2010

Carly Fiorina, who is staking her U.S. Senate campaign on her corporate record, contends that California's tax structure is hostile to business — one reason, she has said, that she was forced to outsource thousands of jobs when she ran Hewlett-Packard Co.

But while Fiorina was chief executive of the computer giant, the state was hospitable enough to grant the company a controversial $13-million tax refund even though, state officials said, it had already used credits to offset some income tax bills.

One of 21 firms that collectively received more than $80 million in sales tax refunds, HP was awarded $13 million in 2005, when the company posted net earnings of $2.5 billion. That year, California faced a $6-billion budget gap and slashed funding for public health programs, education and law enforcement.

In asking for the rebates, the companies cited provisions of a law that state officials said were designed to encourage small start-ups to invest in manufacturing equipment. Hewlett-Packard bills itself as the world's largest technology company.

(More here.)