EDITORIAL UTTER CONTEMPT OUTRAGE METER: 10.

THE MTA unions must be very proud to have had Gov. Gray Davis in the driver's seat when their bus plowed over the poor and powerless who depend on mass transit and the taxpayers who subsidize it.

For his part, Davis ought to be ashamed for the utter contempt he showed for the poor, the powerless and the taxpayers when he signed Senate Bill 1101 on Saturday.

By killing hopes to create a transit zone to provide expanded bus service at lower costs in the nine-city San Fernando Valley region, he forfeited whatever claim to honor he might otherwise deserve for the crumbs he's thrown to the area.

In complicity with Assembly and Senate Democrats from the Valley and elsewhere, he betrayed the public trust in general, and poor people in particular.

The poor will pay more in fares.

The poor will suffer from worse service, more overcrowded buses and fewer routes.

Davis mowed down the poor, but then, the poor don't contribute millions to his massive campaign war chest, the poor don't turn out the vote like unions do.

In caving into the unions, Davis said he wanted to end the MTA strike quickly. That was a specious argument. If he wanted to end the strike quickly, he could have signed the bill two weeks ago that mandates the MTA recognize collective bargaining agreements with drivers if a transit zone is created.

Instead, Davis was counting on the MTA board to cave first and continue the featherbedding and sweetheart contract deals that union members have come to expect over the years.

Davis and the unions weren't prepared for the MTA board to stand tough. But the MTA board - the five county supervisors, Mayor Richard Riordan and his three appointees and four officials of smaller towns in the county - is finally coming to terms with trying to reform an agency they helped corrupt by squandering billions of taxpayers dollars on an ill-conceived subway, rip-offs by contracts and sweetheart labor agreements.

They know the bill has come due as they face an operating deficit totaling nearly $500 million in coming years. They know they can no longer force a half-million riders, two-thirds of whom make less than $15,000 a year, to pay for a few thousand drivers making $50,000 to $80,000 a year.

The MTA board should have a job fair and see how many workers making $7 an hour would be willing to drive buses for $20 an hour.

In the meantime, Davis can keep collecting his union dues - the millions that pour into fending off real competitors for the next governor's race.

But sooner or later, the public's going to realize Davis drove the state into the ground.