(Washington, D.C.) — Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today named Gov. Gray Davis it’s October Porker of the Month for passing and attempting to pass several big government initiatives in the final days before the recall election. After chasing record numbers of people from his state with excessive taxes and regulations, he seems determined to leave the State in the worst possible condition for those who remain.  Davis confronts the recall movement by continuing the fiscal blundering that sparked the voter revolution in the first place.  From tripling car registration fees to speeding up costly mega-land purchases, Gov. Davis is exacting revenge on Californians for exercising their constitutional right to recall a sitting Governor.   Sadly, Gov. Davis’s only response to the $38 billion deficit is to raise taxes in a state that already ranks among the most heavily-taxed in the nation. Furthermore, Davis is doing nothing to eliminate wasteful spending in the state budget.  There are hundreds of places in the state budget where wasteful spending can be eliminated without affecting essential services. The California Piglet Book, recently published by CAGW and Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Foundation, recommends $5.1 billion worth of cost reductions, from cutting $2.5 billion in waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in the Medi-Cal program to eliminating $200 million in overpayments in the food stamp.    

Just when we thought Gov. Davis couldn’t make things any worse, he stands poised to sign some of the worst legislation of his career before he is potentially catapulted from the governor’s office. Over 400 bills are currently sitting on the governor’s desk, including: Property tax increases to finance souring public empolee pension plans; new taxes on small businesses; a new downtown arena for the Sacramento Kings; procedural barriers to future ballot initiatives; new loopholes for future tax increases; and endless other veiled taxes and fees that, while minuscule, could add up to big money for California taxpayers.  Although Gov. Davis has not declared his intention to sign any of these bills, he has until Oct. 12 to make up his mind.

People leaving state

Nevertheless, he was right. Because of unchecked taxes and regulations under California Gov. Gray Davis, a Democrat, and his Republican predecessor Pete Wilson, businesses and citizens have fled in droves. The Census Bureau says that, from 1995 to 2000, some 756,000 people left the state, second only to the rate at which New Yorkers relocated during the same period.

State Spending

Republican candidate Torn McClintock has calculated that if the last budget of Gov. Pat Brown-the "big spender" Reagan unseated in 1966-were enacted today, adjusted for population growth and inflation, it would be about $40 billion, as opposed to the nearly $100 billion budget Gov. Gray Davis proposed. Brown built schools, college campuses, large water projects, and hundreds of miles of highways. Today, at twice the tax burden of the 1960s, the state builds virtually no public works; the budget is almost wholly devoted to social services and education. Spending under Davis has grown twice as fast as household income. Bonded indebtedness has soared from $7 billion to $40 billion in the past two years, and the state's bond rating has sunk to Third World levels. If California were an independent nation, its fiscal imbalance would qualify for International Monetary Fund intervention.

Davis has other troubles. This week, many Californians will receive their car tax bill in the mail. Earlier this year, facing a $38 billion state budget shortfall, he tripled that annual fee -- a step that has stoked the recall movement against him.

Instead of going down with the shape, Davis is dragging the ship down with him

Acting like a college student elbowing their way to the bar before last call. Except the bar is the public treasury and last call is final days of his failed govership/

Mike Tyson chimed in: “I really hate dat Gway Davith. Hith behavior ith unconcionionable. I wish to eat hith children.”

The license fee on his 2003 Nissan Sentra jumped from $123 to $260.

Some motorists said their renewal was lower than expected. That's because the formula factors in annual depreciation before calculating 2 percent of the purchase price. For example, the fee for a $20,000 Toyota purchased in 1998 was $65 before today and $201 after the increase, according to figures suppled by the DMV.

Many families say the added cost -- intended by legislators to address budget shortfalls -- is wreaking havoc with their own modest budgets.

A corporation acquires land, proposes development and incurs opposition from environmentalists. There are regulatory hearings, perhaps lawsuits, and lots of publicity. Politicians then promise to "save" the land with public money. Quite often, the purchase price is well above what the corporation paid in the first place. And everyone insists that corporate campaign contributions and fees to well-placed lobbyists played no role.

The past four years have seen a veritable explosion of mega-land deals of this ilk, beginning with purchase of 7,500 acres of North Coast forestland from Maxxam Corp.'s Pacific Lumber Co., including the much-heralded, 3,500-acre "Headwaters Forest." Maxxam got nearly a half-billion dollars for a tiny fraction of Pacific Lumber's 200,000 acres of forest -- nearly half of what it had paid for the whole thing.

As Davis, who participated in all three of these deals, looks forward to a recall election next week, his administration is speeding up three more mega-land deals. The Wildlife Conservation Board, whose three members are all Davis appointees, staged a special meeting Tuesday to approve nearly $300 million in purchases, including another $18.3 million for more than 700 acres of Pacific Lumber forestland.

The other two are the $140 million purchase of nearly 500 acres of marshland in the Ballona Valley just north of Los Angeles International Airport and $135 million to buy almost 3,000 acres of the Ahmanson Ranch in Ventura County -- both of which had controversial developments planned.

The Ballona deal is a graphic example of the environmental-commercial syndrome. The landowner, Playa Capital Co., hired Davis fund-raiser Darius Anderson as a lobbyist and contributed nearly $2 million, directly and indirectly, to the passage of Proposition 50, a $3.4 billion environmental bond issue that supplied funds for both deals.

Workers’ comp benefits. http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/7516035p-8458021c.html

their amendment to S. 1585, the fiscal 2004 Commerce, Justice, State, and the Judiciary Appropriations Act, that would give away an estimated $100 million in spectrum rights to Northpoint Technology.  With a $480 billion deficit and the President ready to send an $87 billion supplemental spending bill to Congress, the last thing this country needs are two senators pandering to a special interest, violating established precedent for auctioning spectrum rights and squandering taxpayer dollars.

Senator Hutchison and Senator Landrieu, members of the Senate Appropriations Committee, inserted the Northpoint handout language into S. 1585.  The provision would simply give the spectrum rights in question to Northpoint Technology for free.  The company, which has a presence in Texas and New Hampshire, wants to provide wireless and satellite services, including Internet applications, multi-channel video and high speed data.  To cover all the bases in the Senate, Senators Landrieu and John Sununu (R-N.H.) inserted the Northpoint giveaway in H.R 1320, the Commercial Spectrum Enhancement Act of 2003 during a recent markup in the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.

The Northpoint deal subverts the authority of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to issue spectrum licenses through a competitive bidding process, which Congress established in 1993 when two or more parties request the same spectrum.  In this instance, at least one other company, MDS America, is willing to bid for the spectrum at auction, which is scheduled for January 2004.  Instead of complying with this law, the company’s friends in Congress would take away $100 million from the taxpayers.

While the Northpoint earmark is not direct spending, it is equally offensive and costly as any other pork-barrel project added by members of the Appropriations Committee who abuse their authority at the expense of the taxpayers.  In addition to the $100 million expense, the Hutchison-Landrieu amendment is anticompetitive and sets a precedent that will encourage others to seek exemptions from the competitive bidding now required for spectrum allocation.

There is formidable opposition to the Northpoint handout.  Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) said, “I have very little doubt that this is a giveaway and an exception” and House Commerce Committee Chairman Billy Tauzin (R-La.) is equally outraged.  In addition, the Bush Administration strongly opposes Northpoint’s efforts, saying, “Such a provision would interfere with the efficient allocation of Federal spectrum licenses.”

For catering to special interest, undermining the spectrum allocation process, and giving away $100 million in taxpayer funds, CAGW names Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Mary Landrieu September Porkers of the Month.

Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, mismanagement and abuse in government.