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The Denial Factor
Living Truth Through Denial

California
Our Broken State.

Photo by my daughter
Alexandria Marie M, 8,
while on vacation touring
America, with her first
camera.

For your reading enjoyment check out the Trans Fat Ruling.
See what a deficit state spends time and money on.
Learn how to cripple more business, and eliminate more freedom of choice.

http://cchealth.org/groups/eh/retail_food/pdf/ab97_transfat_ban_guidelines.pdf

When you read this article keep in mind these are the folks that help pass laws which strip
or restrict you of the freedom you deserve all in the name of Care and Concern.
They make it tough on us, but not them.

California Law Maker Vehicle Accident Claims Above National Average

Sen. Doug LaMalfa billed the state $1,317.12 for hitting a raccoon with his state-issued car.
Former Assemblywoman Mary Salas drove her state car into a post on one trip, into a
concrete guardrail on another and later ran a red light, hitting a vehicle. Her four claims
cost nearly $28,000.

Assemblyman Cameron Smyth and Sen. Mimi Walters, meanwhile, each filed claims for
hitting their personal vehicles with their state-issued cars.

With approval ratings hovering in the teens, California lawmakers are often criticized for
failing to solve the state's problems.

Turns out they're not always the best drivers, either.

A review of vehicle claims paid on lawmakers' state-issued cars shows they filed 122 claims
over the past five years – roughly one for every four vehicles each year, costing taxpayers
more than $768,000.

Of 122 claims lawmakers filed from 2006 through 2010, 59 involved what the insurance
industry would consider collisions. For a fleet that ranged between 103 and 111 vehicles,
that's about 11 collision claims each year per 100 vehicles.

The national average for collision claims in 2008-10 was 7.5 per 100 passenger cars each
year and 6.1 per 100 SUVs each year, according to Kim Hazelbaker, senior vice president at
the Highway Loss Data Institute, an insurance industry data center.

The lawmakers' claim data were first sought by the California Citizens Compensation
Commission, which this week convenes its annual meeting to consider state officials' pay
and benefits.

The panel cut legislative pay by 18 percent in 2009. This year, the chairman is focused on
axing the only-in-California perk that provides lawmakers a car, gas and maintenance paid
largely by taxpayers.

Legislative administrators contend that even with the cost of insurance, accidents and other
damage claims, the current system is cheaper for taxpayers than paying lawmakers a per-
mile amount to use their personal vehicles for state business.

About half of the 122 claims filed by lawmakers between January 2006 and the end of 2010
involved cracked windshields, damage from roadway debris, random acts of vandalism and
quirky incidents.

LaMalfa, R-Richvale, remembers well the day in 2007 when he clipped a raccoon with his
state-issued Mustang in rural Glenn County, causing $1,317 in damage.
(Why is the state buying or leasing a Mustang?)

"I felt horrible, the poor critter. It was kind of on a bit of a corner and he darts out … "
LaMalfa, then in the Assembly, said he tried "to go the cheap route on it and get some
aluminum and pop rivets to hold it together," but Assembly administrators insisted that the
bumper of his state car be fixed professionally. LaMalfa had a more expensive claim the
next year, hitting another vehicle on an offramp, and costing nearly $16,000.
Smyth and Walters could not be reached for comment.
Relatives' claims paid

The list includes dozens of more costly mishaps, most notably the well-publicized 2007
erratic driving spree by former Sen. Carole Migden, which damaged two other vehicles and
cost $361,000 to settle. Migden said she might have been impaired because of leukemia
treatments. A year earlier, the San Francisco Democrat sideswiped a bus, costing the state
more than $5,000.

Lawmakers are required to carry their own liability insurance for the personal use of the
cars, but the state nonetheless paid three claims over the past five years that involved
relatives of legislators driving the state car.

• The state paid claims of $19,037 in 2006 after Maria Robles, wife of former Assembly
Speaker Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles, rear-ended another car in Núñez's state-issued car,
causing injury.

• The son of former Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia, R-Cathedral City, drove her car into
oncoming traffic in 2006, causing an accident and $22,546.52 in damages. Garcia told the
Orange County Register that her son was sick and she could not drive him home from the
Capitol, where he was attending a ceremony with her.

• The wife of Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, was driving him to an airport in the state-
issued car and hit a disabled vehicle, causing a $32,678 claim.

Migden and Salas, D-San Diego, and 18 other lawmakers filed multiple claims, with nine
filing three claims or more.

Former Assemblymen Rick Keene and Anthony Adams each had three accidents in less than
18 months. Adams, R-Hesperia, hit a wall, a curb and rear-ended another vehicle. Keene, R-
Chico, backed into an object, hit something in a parking lot and rear-ended another driver.
Taxpayers pay damages

Lawmakers drive a wide range of vehicles, most costing between $30,000 and $40,000. The
public subsidy for the lease is capped at a monthly sum that varies depending on the lease
but typically is $287 in the Assembly and $282 in the Senate. Lawmakers pick up 28 percent
of the lease cost of each vehicle, plus any amount above the monthly cap. Taxpayers,
however, pay the other costs, including claim damages, because the state is self-insured.
If the compensation commission removes the car perk, lawmakers may have to use pool
cars or their personal vehicles to conduct legislative business and be reimbursed on a per-
mile basis.

Assembly Administrator Jon Waldie said the Assembly wouldn't repair a legislator's
personal car if it was damaged while on state business. But the state could be liable for
damage that a lawmaker did to another car or for injuries to its occupants.
Even when the costs of repairs, gas and oil and insurance are taken into account, Waldie
said, reimbursing members for the miles they drove at current rates (44 cents per mile for
the Assembly, 40 cents per mile in the Senate) would still cost more than the current vehicle
policy.

"Even with all that it still comes out less per mile," he said. "That means the commission
would be requiring the Legislature to spend more money than they currently do."
Commission Chairman Chuck Murray said the costs of claims add to a system he thinks is
overly generous and invites abuse.
Murray said he is still reviewing the data before Thursday's meeting. He believes the
Legislature should not issue cars or pay mileage but offer a flat monthly allowance to each
member.

"That's how the private sector does it," Murray said. "I think that would be the fairest way
of all. Our goal isn't to be cheap. Our goal is to be right."
As for LaMalfa, he'll support whichever route the commission chooses.
"I think the commission is a good independent source on how this legislator pay thing
should work," he said. "It's not about what I need, it's about what the state needs."
© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.
Thank You Sacramento Bee for helping with my argument of excess.

Paying for a lease car, private jets for official usage, like banning Trans Fats.

DAVID M MILLIGAN
FOR
PRESIDENT
2012

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3-27-2011California
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