SACRAMENTO — Taking up the cause of angry taxpayers, Gov. Pete Wilson on Thursday attacked the state government he has headed for five years by vowing to dismantle huge chunks of public bureaucracy in order to rejuvenate a coagulated system and improve performance.
"You work hard for your paycheck," Wilson said in a statement. "When the state taxes it to finance government programs, you deserve the best possible value for your dollar. . . . That is not the government we have today."
Wilson timed his release of a plan to overhaul the state machinery for the week when taxes are on the minds of many Californians racing to beat the upcoming filing deadline. The unveiling was also orchestrated throughout the executive branch as state officials convened a meeting to brief reporters on the governor's three-year plan.
Their summary of a 67-page internal review that was initiated last September cited dozens of ideas for eliminating or consolidating state offices, transferring operations to private control and dropping at least 4,000 of the 38,000 regulations in state rule books.
But even with the announcement, officials still described their review as a work in progress that will take the remaining three years of Wilson's term to complete. With many key details left to be decided, the governor described even his largest proposal--privatizing the state's $7.3-billion workers' compensation insurance fund--as an idea that is still being explored.
Throughout Sacramento, officials and interest groups were scrambling to learn details of the targets Wilson had identified for change. Many are certain to generate questions. Others have already sparked strong opposition.
Local officials and state engineers said Thursday, for example, that they have questions about the governor's plan to transfer authority for billions of dollars in transportation planning to local governments.
Other ideas listed by the governor have been considered or proposed before, such as a plan to have private companies build and operate state prisons.
Overall, Wilson officials said they have not estimated how many of the state's 276,000 workers would be affected by their plan or how much money it might save taxpayers.
"We are able to quantify it in some areas, not in others," Wilson told reporters after outlining his plan in a luncheon speech to the Sacramento Rotary Club.
Wilson officials were also unclear about how much of their plan requires legislative change.
