THE CALIFORNIA Journal of Politics & Policy Commentary Autopilot Spending Requires a Major Redo Dick Ackerman* Nossaman LLP When Governor Schwarzenegger was first elected, he commissioned the California Performance Review panel to look at state government. Their charge was to maintain services levels at a responsible level and make recommendations of how and where the state could save money. They concluded that if the state made certain structural and administrative changes, over $30 billion savings could be realized while maintaining current service levels. Unfortunately, few of the changes were implemented and therefore minimal budget savings were achieved. If I were governor I would dust off that report www.bepress.com/cjpp Volume 1, Issue 2, 2009 and examine all of its recommendations. I would suggest the following be given a priority: 1. Business regulation. California has one the worst business climates of all 50 states. Our businesses are overtaxed, overregulated, and pay excessive fees (the majority vote version of a tax). The loss of revenue we suffer is billions of dollars from companies that have moved out of the state or have elected not to expand here. This is a result of higher taxes on corporate income, higher sales tax, higher property tax, higher income tax, higher gas tax—you name it; California is higher. Also, our overregulation of business regarding employee issues such as meal and rest periods, sick leave, eight-hour day, overtime, minimum wage, prevailing wage, project labor agreements, and on and on and . . . you get the problem. *Dick Ackerman served as Assistant Republican Leader in the California Assembly, was vice chair of the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee, and currently practices law with Nossaman LLP.