'PIGLET BOOK' LISTS ALMOST $13 BILLION IN STATE WASTE.

Byline: Harrison Sheppard Sacramento Bureau

SACRAMENTO - Two government watchdog groups released a list Tuesday citing examples of almost $13 billion in state and local government spending they say is wasteful, fraudulent and abusive.

The ``2004 California Piglet Book'' is mostly a compilation of problematic government programs and abuses identified in newspaper articles from around the state during the past year. If the problems were addressed, the groups argued, the government could save money without having to raise taxes or cut vital programs.

``We're not talking about throwing people out on the street,'' said Thomas Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste. ``We're not talking about eliminating programs in many cases - although certainly there are some that could be eliminated.

``We're talking about some very common-sense changes that can be implemented if there is the appropriate will here in Sacramento.''

The report was issued by the Washington, D.C.-based CAGW and the California based Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. It was the second annual report for California and was modeled on a similar report produced by CAGW on federal spending.

Among the examples it cites:

--California state employees are now the highest-paid state workers in the nation, earning higher salaries and retirement benefits than they would receive in the private sector for the same work.

--The federal government has fined the state of California $600 million since 1998 for failing to create a statewide system to track child support payments.

--Despite having a monopoly, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has paid more than $20 million for public relations work to Fleishman-Hillard Inc., even while the department maintains an in-house PR staff.

The groups blame most of the state problems on former Gov. Gray Davis and Democrats in the Legislature, and say Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is working to address government waste through his California Performance Review.

Steve Maviglio, who was Davis' press secretary and recently served as a consultant to Assembly Democrats, said the rate of growth in state spending was lower under Davis than under former Govs. Ronald Reagan and Pete Wilson, both Republicans, and said much of the growth was for education, resulting in improvements in test scores.

``The Jarvis Taxpayers Foundation believes no government is good government,'' Maviglio said. ``That's not a philosophy that most Californians believe, particularly when its schools are struggling to make ends meet or when its fire and police departments are having budget problems,'' he said.

Harrison Sheppard, [phone]

harrison.sheppard(at)dailynews.com