GOVERNMENT WASTE

- CALIFORNIA -

Date	Individual / State Agency	Who, What, Where?
01/25/05	State Tax Board	State Refunds $80.6 Million to Companies That Paid No Tax The State Tax Board has awarded 18 companies, most of them technology companies, $80,600,000 in refunds although those same companies paid NO corporate income tax. The refunds were for manufacturing equipment they had purchased. The refunds were awarded based on a decades-old tax break called the manufacturers investment credit, which reimburses manufacturing companies for new equipment purchases. The law was passed in the 1990s to help create manufacturing jobs, but was intended to reduce the tax liability of these companies as was never intended to be used by companies that had no tax liability.
02/24/05	Los Angeles Unified School District	Computer Reading Program Fails Students After spending over $50 million on a grandiose computer system, the Los Angeles Unified School District admits that the program failed to improve student reading skills for kindergarten and first graders and in some case actually hindered achievement because schools used the system improperly. Maybe there is great truth in the statement that the education budget is bloated with monies spend unwisely.
04/23/05	Los Angeles County/ Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center	Costs to Fix Hospital Soaring Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center has become a disaster for Los Angeles County. Estimates range up to $47 million (in addition to the regular budget) to fix all of the pieces of the quagmire in this grossly mismanaged facility. Even though the number of inpatients has dropped sharply, the spending has not decreased. 325 out of 524 nursing positions are vacant forcing the hospital to hire expensive temporary nurses. Typically, many politicians are crying for more money to fix the problem, but the investigation to-date reveals that unusual worker’s compensation claims and high doctor’s salaries are the root of the problem. Since January 2004, King/Drew has fired or moved to fire 13 doctors; an additional 11 have resigned under threat of discipline. Fred Leaf, chief operating officer at the county Department of Health Services, said he believes most King/Drew staffers are honest, but "there's still a large percentage of employees that don't do their job, aren't committed, are dishonest, and need to be dealt with quickly and decisively." Dr. Thomas Yoshikawa, department chairman, was faulted by auditors for lax supervision, including failing to verify timecards, finish performance evaluations and take corrective action for "perceived inappropriate behavior."
04/23/05	Los Angeles County/ Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center	Physician Accused of Lying About Work Practices Dr. Lawrence D. Robinson Jr., the acting chairman of the Pediatrics Department, has been accused of working his own private practice in Lancaster (83 miles away) while he was being paid for his services at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center. He earned nearly $152,000 between his county salary and his academic stipend from the affiliated medical school. He has resigned his position but faces an in-depth investigation and possible prosecution.
04/26/05	Los Angeles County/ Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center	Absurd Pay to Radiologist A radiologist, Dr. Harold Tate, who specialized at government-financed Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center in Los Angeles County was paid $1.3 million for his services, which means he needed to work an average of 20 hours per day, seven days a week, during one six-month period of time.
05/24/05	California Legislature	Legislators to Receive 12% Raise The California Compensation Commission decided that California’s legislators are nor paid enough, raising their salaries from $99,000 to $110,880 per year. Although this was the first raise since 1998,out-of-town legislators receive $138 for food, travel and lodging when the legislature is in session, which amounts to an additional $20,000 per year. What is unique about California is that the California Compensation Commission, consisting of business, labor and the general public, was created by passage of Proposition 112 in 1990 to remove the power of fixing salaries by the lawmakers themselves.
06/10/05	Los Angeles County/ Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center	Problems Continue at Martin Luther King. Jr./Drew Medical Center Now it has been revealed that the outside consultants, Navigant Consulting, Inc., who were hired for $15 million to overhaul the hospital, have been caught in their own web of deceit by committing the same transgressions they were supposed to resolve. Navigant has been accused of billing for more hours than its staff worked and not carrying out critical recommendations. Navigant is now 4 months behind implementing critical reforms they promised to complete by February 28^th. And talk about the goose that laid the golden egg. Los Angeles County is paying each of Navigant’s three top executives $67,500 per month plus expenses, and nurse managers are billed at $36,000 per month. At those rates, I would expect that they should find the cure for at least 3 major diseases instead of milking government to fatten their bottom line. As a final straw, since county government seems unable to resolve the problems with the hospital, Los Angeles is now considering turning over the entire complex to a private firm, but health experts doubt that it is unlikely that any well-run private organization would be willing to take on the snake pit.
07/12/05	State Boards and Commissions	Outrageous Pay for “Do Nothing” State Employees Along with the exponential growth of state and federal government, we unfortunately should fully expect exponential waste as well. In California, according to the Orange County Register, many of the political patronage jobs that are spewed out by the regime in power are costing the taxpayers millions of dollars. The Orange County Register analyzed 80 recent members of state boards and commissions. 28 of the appointees had no skills in the area they were hired to regulate. 36 of the 80 earned incomes from outside jobs in government work or as political consultants. 36 of the 80 got their jobs through political connections. There are now over 300 boards regulating everything from accountants to public utilities, veterinarians and student aid. 18 of the boards pay salaries, and lucrative salaries at that. 14 of the boards pay salaries in excess of $100,000. 72 people make more than a full-time legislator. One board member, Carl Washington, spent 57 days last year at state meetings or doing business with the public at an annual salary of $118,747 – nice hourly rate. Another member, Tom Calderon, earned $99,000 to attend 16 meetings of the California Medical Assistance Commission – really nice hourly rate. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger repeatedly has tried to reel in government and denounced state jobs that “pay $100,000 or more for only meeting twice a month.” Governor Schwarzenegger is also planning on bringing his reform platform to the people in the fall with a special election covering numerous abuses because he has met fierce resistance from both political parties, the legislature and state employee’s unions.
09/01/05	Los Angeles Dept. of Water & Power	Los Angeles Dept Water and Power to Increase Salaries by 34% In the latest affront to the citizens who are captured customers of the utility, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (DWP) plans to offer a new contract to 8,000 workers with salary increases that will amount to a 34% increase over the next five years. The DWP said that they need to offer these insane salary increases to remain competitive with other state utilities, although DWP big wigs admitted that 1) the DWP pays higher for key positions than 3 out of the 4 utilities within the state, and 2) unbelievably, the DWP did not perform any comparative analysis to justify the increases. This proposal is in stark contrast to the promised budget cuts requested by new mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to balance the budget. Unlike most politicians, the mayor was quoted as saying that "Obviously, I want to do as much as I can for our employees, but we've got to live within our means, and that's my concern right now." Comparing salaries with commercial utilities demonstrates the outlandish nature of this proposal. Southern California Edison employees received a 3.5% salary increase in 2003 and a 3.0% increase in 2004. Kris Vosburgh, executive director of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn said, "The city of Los Angeles has a long record of ripping off the ratepayers by increasing wages at a rate much higher than inflation."
09/01/05	Los Angeles	New Mayor Won’t Spend a Dime for Football Stadium The new mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa, must be ingesting hallucinogenic drugs because he has gone against the mainstream and publicly stated that although Los Angeles would love to have their own NFL football team, the city will not spend a dime to make that happen. Tar and feather the mayor! Run him out of town! Unlike the fiscally irresponsible east coast politicians, who callously spend hundreds of millions of dollars subsidizing new sports stadiums, the mayor has shown a real backbone. According to the Los Angeles Times, the mayor was quoted as saying, "We need a football team here. It's the entertainment capital of America, and we need a football team here. What I've said, though, is we're not spending public money for it. We're not going to subsidize the building of stadiums."
09/01/05		Hybrid Car Owners Upset With New Stickers At least one state is trying to take action to force Americans out of their frenzy to buy gas-guzzling SUVs and other horribly inefficient vehicles. Owners of hybrid cars are allowed to drive by themselves in carpool lanes, but these same owners are very upset with the stickers that must be plastered on their cars authorizing their entry into the carpool lanes. The California Highway Patrol requires that each car carry four bright yellow 7 by 3 inch and 5 by 2 inch decals be placed strategically on the car. One owner was quoted as saying, “The DMV person who designed the stickers and determined their placement has been watching too much NASCAR. By the time you have four stickers on your car – two of which are huge – you feel as if you should be paid for the advertising.” But it could be worse. Federal regulations permit states to require stickers up to 12 by 18 inches.
12/01/05	Romoland School Board District	School Board Shenanigans in the Land of Fruits and Nuts Randy Logan Hale didn’t campaign, kiss any babies, attend forums or even attend school board meetings, but he was still elected to the Romoland School District Board with 831 votes. You see, Randy was locked up in jail for violating his probation for spousal abuse and drug possession. He is due to be released in February 2006 just in time to “heat up” local school board meetings. But what the hell, let’s give Randy a chance at improving our education posture – what have we got to lose? Considering the abysmal state of education, maybe an ex-con can get us moving in the right direction. As evidence of the intense scrutiny the American public puts forth in evaluating candidates who run for office, a political science professor offered that he might have been elected because his name was the first entry on the ballot. Recognizing that Randy was convicted of spousal abuse didn’t stop his wife from saying, “This is wild, he'll be glad."
01/01/06	Southgate Treasurer	“Motivational” Taxpayer Money Spent on “Hot Coals” According to the Los Angeles Times, The former Treasurer of Southgate, Albert Robles, dragged a bunch of employees to a Tony Robbins seminar to walk on glowing hot coals, no doubt to invigorate himself and his underlings with the motivational practices of this evangelical money maker. Robles was so impressed by the seminar that he wrote a check for $65,000 to join as a ”Platinum Member,” which gives direct access to Tony Robbins. Naturally, the money didn’t come out of his pocket - the taxpayers picked up the tab for the membership. As a platinum member, Robles went to private events in Fiji and Prague, Czech Republic, and had little tolerance for employees who didn’t get with the program, probably because they had plenty of enthusiasm for their jobs knowing that the pot of gold awaited them at the end of the rainbow in the form of a royal pension and free healthcare for life. Now you might expect that someone in the city government should have noticed the expenses for the membership and the trips to the exotic locations, but let us not forget that Robles was the treasurer, but at least we would have hoped that the auditors would have spotted something fishy. Perhaps this “minor” expense was little noticed considering that Robles has been convicted of bribery and municipal corruption on a much grander scale. Robles managed to purchase a beachside condo in Baja California through a shell corporation using his mother’s name. Tony Robbins company decided to reimburse the cash-strapped city $45,000 of the original $65,000 claiming that that the organization had no knowledge of Robles’ misdoings when they received his application for platinum membership. The city, in its efforts to recoup monies Robles received through kickback schemes, has gone after several contractors that cost the city over $12 million. South Gate has recovered $3.3 million alone from law firms that were connected to Robles, and a waste-hauling firm has agreed to repay the city $8.5 million and to sell its assets as a result of deals during that era. Wow, it’s hard to imagine that Tony Soprano’s reach includes small cities in California.
01/01/06	UC Berkeley	3 Senior Managers Paid for Lucrative Furloughs at UC Berkeley In the past 13 months alone, at least three senior managers have received paid furloughs at full “Sabbatical” salary (at taxpayer expense) before returning to teaching. Over 10 years ago, the University of California promised to end that practice, and the governing Board of Regents limits administrative leave for senior managers to a maximum of 3 months. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the leaves included Chancellor Robert Berdahl, who received a 13 ½ month leave at $365,000 per year, former Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Director Charles Shank a 12 month leave at $336,000 per year, and this month, former Provost M. R. C. Greenwood began a 15 month leave at $301,840 per year. The three salaries add up to just a hair under $1 million per year. The irony of this situation is these paid sabbatical leaves are compensated at about double the normal faculty pay, instead of offering administrative leave at the faculty salaries, OR NO SALARY AT ALL, as is the standard in private industry. The charge is just the latest in a string of rebuffs leveled at the University of California school system that it hides perks and pay from the public and lawmakers. Taxpayer follies have included: · UC quietly paid hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses, relocation allowances, administrative stipends and other compensation. The amount is estimated to be $871 million in hidden compensation. · UC signed a secret agreement with a UC Davis administrator to give her a new job that pays $205,000 although it doesn’t require her to do any work. · UC has added hundreds of high-paying jobs over two years. 2,700 UC employees earn more than $200,000 per year. These revelations came to light while the school system has stated that “budget constraints” have forced it to boost student fees, cut services, increase class sizes and freeze pay for the lower-paid worker bees in the school system. Former Regent Ward Connerly said, “Nothing ever changes at the University of California. It just goes back in hiding for a little bit and comes back at you in a different form.” The fundamental question must be asked, “What other outrageous waste would be exposed if a full-blown investigation is authorized?”
03/01/06		What Have High Business Taxes Done to California’s Economy One only need to look at the trends in California to understand the impact Governor Corzine’s proposed business taxes will have on the economy of New Jersey. Even with the grand living conditions and year-round sunshine that blesses most of the state, the liberal politicians are driving highly productive businesses out of the state. The latest Census Bureau data indicate that, in 2005, 239,416 more native-born Americans left the state than moved in. A big part of the story is a tax and regulatory culture that treats the most productive businesses and workers as if they were a cash-dispensing machine. The cost to business to comply with California’s myriad of rules, regulations and paperwork is more than twice as high as in other western states. But the worst killer is California’s tax system, with a business tax rate of 8.8 percent and its steeply “progressive” personal income tax that has an effective top marginal rate of 10.3 percent, second highest in the nation. CalTax reports that 10 percent of earners pay almost 75 percent of the entire income-tax revenue in the state, and most of those are small business owners, the people who normally create the new jobs. And it looks like things may get much worse. Rob Reiner, the shining light of liberalism, has, in cahoots with his rich Hollywood friends, placed an initiative on the state’s June ballot that would add a 1.7 percentage-point income tax surcharge on “millionaires” with income over $400,000, with the proceeds earmarked for universal pre-school. Mr. Reiner is not a newcomer to the “tax and spend” game but likely sees himself as a Robin Hood on steroids. Over the last few years, he has been at the forefront of initiatives to impose a percentage-point surcharge to pay for government mental-health subsidies and by increasing the tax by $0.50 on a pack of cigarettes to pay for children’s heath care. Now we often become confused at the contradiction between taxpayer’s grief at high taxes and then they seemingly approve new measures that increase those taxes even more. The latest poll indicates that 66 percent of voters approve of Proposition 82, which will provide nearly $23 billion over the next decade to enroll 70 percent of the state’s 4-year-olds in free, voluntary half-day preschool programs at the expense of the “millionaires” and not themselves – so why wouldn’t they be enthusiastic about the prospect? ANYTIME YOU CAN PRESENT A PROPOSITION TO THE VOTERS WHEREIN THE MAJORITY CAN DECIDE TO TAX ANOTHER SMALLER GROUP OF TAXPAYERS WITHOUT BEARING THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE TAX INCREASE THEMSELVES, YOU HAVE A CLASSIC CASE OF “TYRANNY OF THE MAJORITY” WHICH ONLY INCREASES THE DIVISIVENESS OF THE VOTER CLASSES. But the proposition is not a shoe-in. Anti-tax groups are fighting the measure tooth and nail, as well as there is a growing body of dissent among early childhood education advocates who question whether a new government-run program for preschoolers, operated by the same troubled school system that control kindergarten through the 12^th grade, is a good idea after all. Many private community-based preschool providers meanwhile believe the measure is flawed and could force them out of business if they choose not to participate or they somehow don’t qualify as one of the “enlightened” teaching establishments. Although many people feel there is a definite inequity in only the “rich” being able to afford preschool for their children, once government takes on that responsibility, mainstream academia, which has done a lousy job of education to-date, will assume god-like powers in determining curriculum for these preschoolers. At least before, parents had a “choice” where and how their preschoolers were taught, but maybe Robin Hood is just trying to make sure American kids catch up with immigrant’s kids, who receive “free” preschool paid for by the state and federal government. Yes, this is true – check it out for yourself. Perhaps sinister forces are at work regarding the “hugely” popular proposition. The Los Angeles Times reports that the state commission, First 5 California Children and Families Commission, created by our boy Robin Hood, faces increased scrutiny and will be audited by the Bureau of State Audits. The uproar started when First 5 Director Kris Perry appeared before a hearing of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee and replied she would not answer questions “on the advice of counsel.” A committee of state senators and Assembly members want to investigate reports that First 5 spent $23 million in tax money to tout the benefits of preschool to fund the preschool initiative, and then spent $230 million in contracts to public relations and ad firms to win the campaign to raise the cigarette tax by $0.50. Perhaps that answers the question of taxpayer confusion when that much money is illegally thrown behind an initiative. This is not the first time that heart-stopping increases in taxes have caused a mass exodus. In the early 1990s, under Governor Pete Wilson the state raised its top income-tax rate to 11 percent, triggering one of the worst fiscal crises in the state’s history, resulting in a massive rollback of tax rates. The people who are leaving the state are the exact people his campaigns are directed at, the “millionaires,” costing the state $9 billion in lost tax revenue. Republican Assemblyman Ray Haynes notes that the average high-income individual can have a house built in neighboring Nevada and pay for it just from the money saved in a year of not paying California taxes. But I’ll bet it’s one hell of a commute! The Apathetic Voter looks forward to the day, in at least one of the “liberal” states, when the only people left will be the liberals. Then they can merrily tax each other to death until hopefully they eventually learn a lesson from their foolhardy policies or self-destruct crying for the federal government to bail them out of bankruptcy to (hopefully) no avail.
03/01/06	State Senate	Legislators Understand the Important Priorities of Their Work Instead of spending legislator’s time rooting out waste and corruption within state government, State Senator Carole Migden sponsored a bill to proclaim Zinfandel as the official state wine. Now we wouldn’t dare suggest that the good senator has a vested interest in promoting the zesty wine (the region’s primary export) from her domicile of Somona County. While she was at it, perhaps she could have nominated the state beer, drug-of-choice and cigarette, too. But she isn’t the only politician to benefit at least surreptitiously from her important piece of legislation. California now has an official state Gold Rush town and Silver Rush ghost town, as well as the official animal, bird, fish, flower, fossil, gemstone, grass, insect, marine fish, marine mammal, and mineral, while West Coast swing dancing is the official state dance, square dancing is the official state folk dance, and San Joaquin is the official state dirt. We can all wonder how many dollars the respective politicians made off of each endorsement for these inane identities instead of accomplishing unimportant work like finding ways to cut government spending.
03/01/06	University of California (UC)	UC Board To Review Severance Policy According to the San Francisco Chronicle, after the media exposed the ludicrous severance packages that the University of California (UC) has been dishing out to executives who decide to leave the school on their own volition, UC’s governing board plans to vote on a new policy barring the university from approving severance agreements worth $100,000 or more without the board’s approval. This action came a few months after the university was exposed for their wasteful policies regarding highly paid sabbatical leave and severance packages. One incident in particular raised the ire of taxpayers across the country in that UC secretly decided to give former UC Davis Vice Chancellor Celeste Rose an outright cash payment of $50,000 and a new job that pays $205,000 a year after she threatened to sue the university for discrimination when she was told to resign. In the new job she has no duties but will be retained for at least two years. The vital question is did UC buy off the woman because she had a legitimate harassment complaint, or was this just another example of the excesses of “political correctness” by throwing money at a downtrodden minority? In either case, UC is shoveling out nearly $1/2 million with zero benefit to the university. How many scholarships would $1/2 million buy within the $16 billion university system? State Senator Abel Maldonado (Republican, Santa Monica) introduced legislation that would require UC to give the state more information about its executive pay packages, and said, “In light of the UC systems’ track record on transparency for its compensation and severance practices, it is premature for UC administrators to be advocating for less transparency instead of more.” The Joint Legislative Audit Committee voted to order a state audit into UC’s compensation practices. Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (Democrat, Los Angeles) said, “There has been a flagrant disregard for the use of taxpayer dollars by the UC president’s office. This audit, we hope, will be the best way to whip the UC into shape. Many regents were as alarmed as members of the public after these pay packages were disclosed.” Only time will tell if a meaningful audit produces changes in the university’s gross spending habits.
03/01/06	Prison System	State Prison Health System Placed Under Federal Receiver The news has been filled with major state government institutions being placed under federal control because of a climate of waste and corruption. A judge placed California’s $1.2-billion inmate medical care system under federal receivership. The judge seized control of the system as a result of a 2001 class action suit over prison healthcare. In 2002, the state agreed to overhaul inmate healthcare and phase in improvements, but court-appointed inspectors told the judge that they saw few signs of progress in a system that kills on average one inmate – through neglect or malpractice – each week. One expert told the judge that prison medical facilities were in near “anarchy,” causing a pattern of preventable deaths that he called “macabre.” According to the Los Angeles Times, U. S. District Judge Thelton Henderson granted the receiver Bob Sillen full power to set budgets, hire, fire and discipline staff; make and break contracts, write and discard policies; and decide how to spend every dollar used to care for 168,000 inmate sin 33 prisons. The encouraging news about this deal is that the receiver won’t need to bother with the arcane civil service regulations that plague almost every government institution to hire, fire or discipline staff. Of interest, inmate medical care is not the only piece of California’s $8.2 billion correction system under some form of court monitoring. Others include the youth prisons, the mental healthcare system, the parole revocation system, and Pelican Bay Prison. It is surprising that prison officials didn’t respond with the oft used and tired old line about how they needed a massive infusion of money to fix the problem.
04/01/06	Department of Parks and Recreation	State Workers’ Pay Low Rents California provided 1,181 houses, cabins and dorms across the state to employees at 13 state agencies at a pittance of the real costs, costing taxpayers an estimated $8.3 million. One state ranger lives in a state-owned cottage overlooking the Pacific Ocean and pays $148 per month, about one-fifteenth the going rate. Assemblyman Chick Devore (Republican, Irvine) has sponsored legislation that toughens the rules on calculating fair market value for state-owned property. ON state agency, the Department of Parks and Recreation, provides 487 units with total income of $763,000. If rented at fair market value, the units would draw $4.7 million. According to the Los Angeles, the issue came to a head from a state audit initiated from a whistle-blower’s tip that some state employees and volunteers had lived rent-free in housing provided by the Department of Fish and Game. One employee paid no rent for 21 years. In all, seven volunteers and six employees lived rent-free for a total of 718 months at a loss of more than $87,000.
04/01/06	Governor Schwarzenegger	Massive Bond Effort Fails to Make Ballot According to the Boston Herald; the California public has become deeply pessimistic that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature cannot work together since a massive public works plan failed to make the June ballot. In January, Schwarzenegger proposed a $222 billion, 10-year plan to improve the state’s highways, levees, schools and public transit systems. It relied on $68 billion in borrowing that required voter approval over a series of elections. Mark Baldassare, who conducted a survey of the voters, said, “I think that people have a strong sense that the Legislature can’t get anything done and that it’s hard to get anything done in the state.” The voters don’t know how lucky they are that they possess a “do nothing” Legislature. At least they won’t need to worry about the state borrowing multi-billions of dollars to pay for another grandiose and likely scandal-ridden government scheme.
04/01/06	Los Angeles	Los Angeles Faces $271 Million Budget Shortfall According to the Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, laying the political groundwork for his inaugural budget, painted a bleak picture of city finances Wednesday — warning of a deficit that could reach $271 million even as he pledged to hire more police. The mayor said, "We're committed to putting L.A. on a new path, one that will lead to true fiscal accountability and truth in budgeting, I'm committing today [that] the budget-busting practices of the past will be history." But guess who stands in the mayor’s way, the 36,156 city employees. The budget season arrives just as Los Angeles faces difficult contract negotiations with police, firefighters and city engineers, all eager to secure large raises. Villaraigosa said the city's precarious financial picture stems from several factors, including a decline in city revenue after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the dot-com bust and the state's grabbing of municipal funds to balance its own budget. In addition, he said employees' pay and their healthcare and pension costs have increased significantly, partly because the city's workforce has grown in recent years. One economist gave Villaraigosa a thumbs up for tackling the persistent deficit but said the mayor will face an uphill fight because of the union contracts and economic forces beyond his control.
06/01/06	University of California (UC)	UC Chief Raked Over Coals For Salary Policies According to the Los Angeles Times, University of California (UC) regents and state lawmakers have put UC President Robert Dynes on the spit for UC’s pay policies. He admitted to a culture in his office of "trying to get away with as much as possible and disclose as little as possible." An internal audit revealed scores of violations of university policy identifying 143 exceptions to the university's compensation policies that had been made to give extra pay or benefits to 113 senior managers. That's on top of the 91 exceptions identified last month by PricewaterhouseCoopers auditors for a different group of UC executives. The audit found that the university had skirted its own rules by granting extra vacation time, asking regents to approve large raises without informing them that the raises were beyond policy limits and giving large relocation incentive allowances to executives moving within California. Three state senators jointly said, “President Dynes, it is not easy for me to look you right into the whites of your eyes and say it, but I am saying it to you today: You have had sufficient opportunity to implement accounting reforms and to get rid of compensation abuses in the university. Instead, it seems the problems have flourished under your watch," said Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, who sits on the state Senate education committee that has held hearings on the compensation controversy. "President Dynes, I look to you to exhibit leadership. I ask you to resign."
06/01/06		Illegal Immigrant Statistics in Los Angeles According to the Los Angeles Times: · 40 percent of all workers in Los Angles County (over 10 million people) are working for cash and not paying taxes. · 95 percent of warrants for murder are for illegal aliens · 75 percent of the most wanted list are illegal aliens · Over two-thirds of the births in LA County are to illegal alien Mexicans on Med-Cal whose births are paid for by taxpayers · 25 percent of all inmates in California detention centers are Mexican illegal aliens · The FBI, DEA, LA County and LAPD report that over half of all gang members are most likely illegal aliens form south of the border · Less than 2 percent of illegal aliens are picking our crops but 29 percent are on welfare · The cost of illegal immigration to American taxpayers in 1997 was a NET (after subtracting taxes immigrants pay) $70 billion a year.
07/01/06	University of California (UC)	Huge Perks Handed Out to Educators Millions of dollars worth of extra compensation has been handed out to California State University campus presidents and other top executives as they leave their posts -- without public disclosure by the chancellor and the university's Board of Trustees. Of the 44,000 people employed by the CSU system, a review by The Chronicle found that a handful of past and present officials in the university's 29 highest-paid positions benefit in part from policies designed specifically for an inner circle of top administrators. Whether it's "transition pay," a multiyear consulting contract or a coveted tenured teaching position, the executives have for a decade or more received these little-known perks to cushion their departure from -- and in some cases return to -- the nation's largest public university system. Whether it's "transition pay," a multiyear consulting contract or a coveted tenured teaching position, the executives have for a decade or more received these little-known perks to cushion their departure from -- and in some cases return to -- the nation's largest public university system. For example, some retired campus presidents and other executives have been given "special assignments" and kept on the payroll for up to five years after leaving office. Several executives were retained on the payroll even after taking jobs elsewhere. These opportunities -- not available to rank-and-file employees -- have been handed out as students have seen their tuition costs increase by 76 percent over the past three years. "I am just appalled that this is occurring when the reality is that the budget has been cut so many times, and we cannot afford these kinds of perks. I was certainly not aware of it." said Trustee Ricardo F. Icaza. "This is happening against a backdrop of rising student tuition fees. We've had a depletion in the enrollment because the people who we're trying to serve are the least able to afford it. People have had to take two jobs to make their student loans."
08/01/06	Health Care	California Moving Towards Communist Goals As unbelievable as it may sound to rational people, California’s legislature is about to pass a universal healthcare bill, SB840, that will eliminate private medical insurance plans and establish a statewide health insurance system that would provide coverage to all Californians. The Assembly approved the bill by a party line of 43-30, whereby all Democrats voted for the bill and all Republicans voted against the bill. The state Senate has already approved the plan once and is expected to approve changes that the Assembly made to the bill. It is likely that Governor Schwarzenegger will veto the bill, but that veto will be blown away by the legislature. As many as 7 million people are uninsured in the state, and spiraling costs have put pressure on business and consumers. And how many of those 7 million people are illegal immigrants? SB840 would provide comprehensive medical, dental, vision, hospitalization and prescription drug coverage to every California resident. Anyone could see any doctor or go to any hospital. Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (Democrat, Los Angeles) said, “We know that health care in place today is teetering on collapse. We need to do something to improve it, to reform it, and that is what we are bringing to the table.” Schwarzenegger said, “I don’t believe that government should be getting in there and should start running a health care system that is kind of done and worked by the government. I think that what we should do is be a facilitator, to make the health care costs come down. The sad story in America is that our health care costs are too high, that everyone cannot afford health care.” Ironically, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides is not supporting the bill, even though labor unions and Democrats will take part in a rally to urge Schwarzenegger to sign the bill. The bill’s sponsor, state Senator Sheila Kuehl, said, “SB840 creates a system of comprehensive health insurance benefits for all Californians that guarantees free choice of doctors and hospitals. It creates access for all Californians by steeply reducing administrative overhead and emphasizing preventative and primary care instead of endlessly cutting coverage and access to care or increasing consumer spending.” SB840 allows California to use its purchasing power to negotiate bulk rates for prescription drugs and durable medical equipment, such as wheelchairs, thus realizing $2 billion in savings. Supporters claim that the system will be paid for by federal, state and county monies already being spent on health care and by affordable insurance premiums that replace all premiums, deductibles, out-of-pocket payments and co-pays now paid by employers and consumers. Republicans and insurance groups oppose the bill, saying it will create another inefficient government bureaucracy. Assemblyman Greg Aghazarian (Republican, Stockton) said, “This takes us in the wrong direction. This creates a government-run system akin to the Department of Motor Vehicles. Do we want health care taken care of by another bloated bureaucracy?” The Public Policy Institute (a left leaning think tank) poll from September 2004 showed that 71 percent of likely voters are somewhat concerned about being able to afford health care. A slim majority, 53 percent, said they would be willing to pay more – either through higher health insurance premiums or higher taxes – to increase the number of people who have health insurance. Well citizens, you are about to get your wish. You’ll be paying substantially higher taxes. Doesn’t it make you stop and think that you’ll be paying for the health care of those 7 million uninsured residents? That’s 20 percent of the population. But the tax bite will be much higher than 20 percent, because now people will be able to go to the doctors or to a hospital for every real and imagined ailment, driving up the costs even more. The Democrats across the country have collectively lost their minds. The bill DOES NOT ACCOUNT FOR THE COSTS OF THE PROGRAM. The bill will create a commission to examine how the structure would work. An independent health care consulting firm claims that the plan could be paid for with all money now being spent on health care. We all have to wonder if the Easter Bunny runs the health care consulting company? The report casually mentions that funding could come from an 8 percent payroll tax and 3 percent individual income tax. Go head Democrats. Keep taxing the people into an early death. Don’t the Democratic politicians pay any attention to cost data from the country’s that have mandated universal health care? In Canada, which also outlawed private medical care, some provinces devote half the province budget is to the inefficient health care organization. As much as people despise private medical insurance plans, they are able to control costs by denying certain very expensive procedures that are not life threatening. We can all watch the boom in cosmetic surgery paid for the taxpayers after this bill is passed. Within 10 years, it is highly likely that every California woman will have breast implants. And how about the too-powerful state worker’s unions? To implement this plan, it will obviously require thousands of more state workers adding to the power of the unions, factoring in the 30 percent of “dead wood” who do no work to speak of. Do you think any future governors will be able to reign in their power? We can all imagine the unchecked waste and corruption that will draw every crook within 500 miles of California, because traditionally state governments rarely put checks and balances and audit controls in place to detect the fraud. The Free Republic stated on their web site: “SB 840 is an aggressive plan to bring socialized medicine into California by replacing private health insurance with a mandatory state-run program for every California resident. SB 840 will: 1) force every California resident above poverty level to pay a state insurance premium (hidden tax); 2) destroy the current system of choices of health care coverage; 3) drive up the cost of health care coverage; 4) reduce the quality of health care available; 5) reduce the availability of health care, forcing some families to go out of state to obtain health care for their family members; 6) create a new huge government bureaucracy that will make life and death medical decisions; and 7) place all final health care decisions in the hands of a single government board and its commissioner.” Chris Ohman, president and CEO of the California Association of Health Plans, summed it best by saying, “If there isn’t the focus and drive for advancing preventative programs (which there won’t be under this bill), the sky’s the limit in term of what the costs will be. That’s what health plans do.”
08/01/06	University of California (UC)	UC Regents Paid Out $1 Million in Improper Pay Last month we reported that UC Regents shelled out millions of dollars worth of extra compensation to California State University campus presidents and other top executives as they leave their posts -- without public disclosure by the chancellor and the university's Board of Trustees. After three separate audits, it has now been revealed that 60 top executives in the University of California system received extra compensation that they weren’t due. The audits demonstrated how UC administrators flouted and circumvented some university policies while occasionally violating others – such as neglecting to get the regent’s approval as required for some payments. A few of the violations include: · An 18-month sabbatical for UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau at full pay, which is worth several hundred thousand dollars · Deferred compensation and a boost in vacation days for UC Riverside Chancellor France Cordova. · $5,000 per month to UC San Diego Vice Chancellor Ed Holmes to circumvent university restrictions on outside income. UC officials forget to stop making the payments. Not only will they not ask for the money back, UC will continue to pay the extra $5,000 per month. Naturally, the regents concluded that the individuals should not be penalized for having to repay the money to the university, for after all, its only taxpayer money. Assemblyman Leland Yee (Democrat, San Francisco), who has proposed legislation barring the regents from meeting behind closed doors when considering compensation of high-ranking executives, said, “These regents have got to be living on another planet. For the past year, the constant revelations of closed-door deals and back-door deals have shaken the foundation of the UC system and they simply don’t get it.”
08/01/06		77 State Employees Made More than $200,000 – Most state employees make about $50,000 per year, plus a better than average pension and other benefits, but a growing number of state employees are earning more than $200,000 per year. Overall, 77 state employees earned at least $200,000 including overtime and other payments. The figures raise serious questions about the state’s ability to rein in costs. Many of the state employees reached the $200,000 plateau only because they earned tens of thousands of dollars in overtime, a 60 percent jump from 2004. Representative examples of the lunacy of the overtime policy (which pays time and a half) include: · Jose Chacon, a Lieutenant in the state prison system, earned $228,971 · Dr. Tam Bui earned $299,040 including $162,468 in overtime · Mark Anson, former chief investment officer for the California Public Employee’s Retirement Systems (CalPERS), earned $678,665 including $269,483 in performance bonuses. Examples of excessive overtime payments included: · Wes Franklin, the former executive director of the California Public Utilities Commission, received $105,000 when he retired last year because he had accrued more than 37 weeks of overtime. · Nhuhy Hathac, a prison psychiatrist, retired with a lump sum of $145,396. · Charles Snyder, a manager at the Department of Motor Vehicles, retired with $118,284 in paid leave. In regard to these obscene salaries, Ron Roach, a spokesperson for the California Taxpayer’s Association, lamented, “That’s more than the governor makes. I think the taxpayers should be concerned that there are people who are earning such incredible amounts of money.”
08/01/06	Prison System	California Prison Audit Finds Huge Abuse – Sometimes we can’t be sure who the bigger crooks are, the convicts or the prison authorities. In a recent audit of California prisons, the auditors found examples of waste and abuse that stifle the imagination. The cost of prison health care has zoomed from $153 million in 2001 to $821 million this year. Examples of the waste and most likely corruption (for its only taxpayer money) are: · A urologist was able to charge $2,036 an hour to treat inmates · An orthopedic surgeon billed the state for 30 hours of work for a single day. Some providers — including the urologist and surgeon — took advantage of the department's poor negotiations for services and lax oversight of billing and payments, the audit said. For example, the corrections department paid the orthopedic surgeon nearly $1.5 million in one year. The controller's audit is just the latest critical review of prison health care spending. The prison system's inspector general and the Bureau of State Audits also have found overspending, mismanagement and abuse by outside contractors. In one case, the department overpaid a contractor nearly $500,000 over 10 months. The laboratory provided false test results for inmates suspected of having hepatitis C, but the department paid for retests and renewed the lab's contract for another three years. California's prison health care system is so mismanaged it already operates under the authority of a receiver who was appointed by a federal court. Controller Steve Westly said, "Waste, abuse and management deficiencies are rampant" in contracted health care services.