Taxpayer Group Names California Gov. Davis 'Porker of the Month'
Friday, June 8, 2001
A taxpayer watchdog group has named California Gov. Gray Davis as the "Porker of the Month."
The group Citizens Against Government Waste said Davis deserved the award because of his "incessant whining" about the decision of the Bush White not to impose federal price controls on wholesale energy markets.
CAGW said Davis, a Democrat, has earned the Porker of the Month title for his advocacy of price controls, lawsuits and subsidies; and for "being in the dark about basic economics, while keeping millions of Californians in the dark with him and for playing finger pointing politics with California's energy crisis."
"Last year," the CAGW statement said, "Davis was so concerned about his populist reputation that he refused to raise consumer energy rates until it was too late. Upon waking up and noticing the lights were off, he flushed the state's entire budget surplus down the drain attempting to subsidize consumers. If Davis had uncapped consumer energy prices sooner, the major crisis could have been averted."
Davis pointed fingers, the group said, blaming his problems on predecessor (Republican Pete Wilson) for not building power plants, Texas energy producers for gouging prices and the Bush administration.
"He is now spending $30,000 a month in state funds to retain two former Gore staffers, known for their scorched-earth attacks to shift blame away from himself and onto Bush," CAGW said.
Steve Maviglio, a spokesman for Davis, called Citizens Against Government Waste "an organization that has none of the facts and all the press releases, and we're not interested in commenting on something that's not rooted in any fact."
Davis said earlier this week in Sacramento that California's electricity costs were "dropping substantially." He has asked state legislators for an additional half-billion dollars for power purchases.
Meanwhile, the Orange County Register reported Wednesday that a California Senate committee today will demand that the state release its own confidential bidding data and all internal memos detailing its $7 billion in electricity purchases.
If the California Department of Water Resources refuses to turn over the documents, the Senate Rules Committee has vowed to issue a subpoena by June 15 to force the issue.
Davis has fiercely fought the release of such information because he says power generators could use the fresh data to further drive up prices.