Does Villaraigosa's Mismanagement Cost Us An Extra 33%?

You know we own an airport in Ontario, right? Like that makes any sense. Anyhow, the people of Ontario understandably want to control their own airport, rather than leaving it in the hands of Villaraigosa and his cronies.

As I explained last month, Villaraigosa and his cronies want to hang onto the airport, not because it does you or me any good, but because it provides an opportunity to award lucrative contracts to politically connected contractors and unions. You can spend millions and millions, year after year, remodeling a single airport.

That is why Villaraigosa has hung onto the airport, while selling valuable assets like parking lots that are right here in our city.

Anyhow, the Mayor of Ontario made a statement the other day that if his city takes over the airport, they expect they can reduce costs by 25%.  So reports The Press-Enterprise.

That's a striking statistic, don't you think? It's equivalent to saying Villaraigosa inflates costs by 33%. After all, if you can reduce costs by 25%, taking them down to 75% of their current level, that means the current level is 33% higher than it should be (25 divided by 75 = .33).

Assuming Villaraigosa manages LAX and everything else just as effectively as he manages the Ontario airport, that would mean we, the taxpayers and ratepayers, are grossly overpaying for the "services" we receive.

But could we really be paying 33% more than we should?

Yes, yes, a hundred million times, "yes." Think of the hundreds of millions squandered by the CRA every year on corporate welfare that merely pumps up the profits of politically connected businesses; the tens of millions that go to those lame "anti-gang" programs every year; the Heaven-only-knows-how-many millions on mismanaged contracts like the GPS units for parking enforcement cars; the tens of thousands per year going to City Councilman Cardenas's sister and brother-in-law for dumbass things like taking low rider cars to Mexico; and on, and on, and on.

Bill Handel has a great line: "We're paying for socialism, but we're not getting it."

So, anyhow, you can keep overpaying, or you can get involved in LA Clean Sweep and try to elect a few people who aren't completely brain-dead or crooked to City Council.