| For Immediate Release | Contact: Jessica Shoemaker (202) 467-5318 |
| November 15, 2005 | Evening Contact: Tom Finnigan (202) 253-3852 |
(Washington, D.C.) – Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) and the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Foundation (HJTF) today released the 2005 California Piglet Book at a press conference in Sacramento. For the third year in a row, the report provides a blueprint for reducing waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in the state government.
“Californians are threatened with immense tax increases, yet millions of dollars in the state budget are lost to waste and fraud,” CAGW President Tom Schatz said.
From payroll and pension abuse to tens of millions of dollars for a pretend railroad, the California Piglet Book exposes areas in the state budget where wasteful spending can be eliminated. The Franchise Tax Board’s entry into the tax preparation business is the latest in California’s long line of information technology boondoggles. As a pilot program, ReadyReturn competes with the private sector and prepared returns for 11,500 taxpayers in the 2004 tax filing season. In addition to the conflict of interest in having the tax collector also serve as the tax preparer, the program presents a myriad of accountability problems. FTB has created a new government program, at significant taxpayer expense, even though FTB’s website links visitors to at least nine private-sector tax preparation companies offering their services to tax filers for free. ReadyReturn is an overreaching government boondoggle predicated upon a non-existent public need and should be eliminated.
One issue in the Piglet Book actually originates in Washington, D.C. The Real ID Act, signed into law in May 2005, for the first time authorizes the federal government to set uniform standards for state drivers’ licenses. The federal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is charged with developing security standards but has no experience in making ID cards on a massive scale. One mandate being considered is an embedded computer chip with the capacity for carrying detailed personal information. CAGW’s recent report, Real ID: Big Brother Could Cost Big Money, details how computer chips could push the cost of a drivers’ license in California from $24 to at least $90 – a 245 percent increase – and would pose privacy risks. In February 2005, State Sen. Joe Simitian introduced SB 768, the Identity Information Protection Act of 2005, which would prohibit the use of radio waves to “transmit personal information or to enable personal information to be read remotely” in drivers’ licenses or other state ID cards. The passage of SB 768 by the California State Senate sends an important message to DHS that the federal government can achieve the security goals set by Real ID while keeping costs under control.
The 2005 California Piglet Book is available online at www.cagw.org and www.hjta.org. For answers to further questions, to schedule an interview, or to order a hard copy, please contact Tom Finnigan (202-467-5309, media@cagw.org) or Jon Coupal (916-444-9950, jon@hjta.org).
Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government. The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Foundation is dedicated to the protection of Proposition 13 and promoting taxpayers’ rights.