CAGW Releases Eighth Round of Numbers 

(Washington, D.C.) - In an ongoing effort to inform taxpayers of the high cost of the continued litigation against Microsoft by nine state attorneys general and the District of Columbia, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today released the eighth of its weekly updates estimating the amount of money being risked by the states at taxpayers' expense.  The total amount spent can be tracked through a spending meter located on CAGW's website, www.cagw.org.  At the conclusion of the trial, on behalf of the taxpayers in the nine states and D.C., CAGW will present an invoice to the attorneys general for the final cost.

"We have now completed the second month of trial, and at the current rate, taxpayers are going to end up with a rather hefty legal bill," CAGW President Tom Schatz said.  "People want to see the end of this litigation.  The only ones who are interested in continuing the trial, aside from Microsoft's competitors, are the remaining state attorneys general."

Several witnesses for Microsoft testified this week that the states’ settlement proposal would create new security risks involving computers and open the door for hackers and computer viruses.  Government systems using Microsoft Windows operating system would be placed in an extremely dangerous position.

“Now not only are the continuing states putting our tax dollars at risk, but the country’s security may now be at stake,” Schatz said.  “The states would give terrorists a greater opportunity to penetrate the government’s computer systems.  America’s enemies are already considering using computer viruses as a weapon.  There are already dozens of reports detailing the nation’s vulnerability to hacking.  In the end, the states’ proposal would only make matters worse.”

CAGW has repeatedly asked for information regarding the states' expenditures in the case by filing Freedom of Information Act requests with the attorneys general, most recently in January 2002.  The states have either denied the requests or provided incomplete responses.  California, which is leading the effort to prolong the litigation, has not revealed any of the current costs it is bearing in this case.

As a result of the lack of response from the states CAGW estimated the cost of the trial based on information collected from other leading litigation firms in Washington.  The analysis reveals that each day in court costs at least $30,000.  Once pretrial preparation, estimated at $250,000, is factored in the total cost by the end of this week will be $1,240,000.

The state of California, facing a budget deficit of more than $14 billion, recently admitted that it was footing the bill for most of the states’ ongoing litigation activities.  The state’s attorney general, Bill Lockyer, recently returned $50,000 in contributions from the Oracle Corporation, one of the main protagonists of the states’ radical remedy.  While the refund of Oracle’s money was related to an investigation of a sweetheart contract with California’s Department of Information Technology, it does show the influence the company has on decisions made by the state.

"The remaining states can better use the resources that are tied up in this case on issues that will serve the greater good, such as homeland security," concluded Schatz.  "The federal government and nine other states have already settled the case, and so too should the remaining states."

Citizens Against Government Waste is the nation's largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.