You don’t need higher taxes. You need a new mayor.  Villaraigosa and City Hall are squandering your hard-earned money to the tune of at least $4,949 per voter!  (That’s $2,205,887,800 -- over $2.2 billion -- divided by 445,763 people who voted in the March 2005 election).  The “spreadsheet of shame,” below, itemizes just a few of the boondoggles. You can click on an item to see supporting documents.  (Warning: they are in PDF format and take a few seconds to load.)  After that, how about contributing $100 to my campaign to save yourself several thousand dollars?  Click here to slash your tax burden.

Item                                                  Cost      Cost Per Voter

Sphincter-control classes for civil servants        $18,000         $0.04

City Council weekend "retreat" at luxury hotel      $13,000         $0.03

Calligraphy department per year                    $550,000         $1.12

Villaraigosa's airfare and hotels per year         $200,000         $0.45

Villaraigosa bronze plaque - purchase                  $200         $0.00

Villaraigosa bronze plaque - upkeep per year           $100         $0.00

Rental monkeys - 10 years' rent, 3 monkeys      $1,000,0000         $2.24

Rental monkeys - feng shui consultant                $4,500         $0.01

Rental monkeys - monkey pen                      $7,400,000        $16.60

Business income tax per year                   $477,590,000     $1,071.40

Pork:  subsidies for developers per year       $670,800,000     $1,504.84

Pork:  tax breaks for Grand Ave developers      $66,000,000       $148.06

Pork:  tax breaks for L.A. Live developers     $140,000,000       $314.07

Cost of the special election on Proposition S    $5,100,000        $11.44

Decision to capture rather than kill alligator     $200,000         $0.45

Dog food lawsuit settlement and fees             $2,780,000         $6.24

Elephant pen for two elephants                  $39,000,000        $87.49

Gang "programs" - "Big Weasel" gun dealer        $1,500,000         $3.37

Gang "programs" - audit by controller              $500,000         $1.12

Gang "programs" - study by "non-profit"            $593,000         $1.33

Gang "programs" per year                       $168,000,000       $376.88

Housing agency employees' embezzlement           $1,089,000         $1.79

Illegal tax via excessive DWP power fees       $184,600,000       $414.12

Illegal tax via excessive trash fees           $150,000,000       $336.50

Phone tax per year                             $270,000,000       $605.70

Gorilla pen                                     $19,000,000        $42.62

TOTALS               $2,205,887,800   $4,949

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