Assemblyman Hadley Turns Down Government Vehicle

For the two years after the previous assemblyman was elected to represent the South Bay (66th Assembly District) it looked as if any reader would find some story about him in the press, whether reading to children or receiving awards from local business leaders.

For the first time in my adult life, I can now read Assemblyman (R-Torrance) in the press, and yet I find that I have not read much about the new South Bay representative David Hadley.

What's going on? Last week, I had commented on the inherent media bias which shuts out conservative voices in favor of government programs, sensational stories, and Democratic Party promotional pieces.

Did anyone read about Assemblyman Hadley's decision to turn down the perk of his own government vehicle?

David Hadley

Here's his statement on this decision:

Several weeks ago I informed the Assembly Rules Committee that I was turning down my state-owned car for this two-year term. A car is generally kept for each legislator in the Capitol basement (except for those legislators who live close to Sacramento).

 I am proud to be practicing what I preach, and doing what I can to save money for the taxpayers of California!

The Daily News, part of the Los Angeles News Group which includes the Daily Breeze, released the following editorial about Sacramento's excessive spending on government vehicles for California lawmakers:

Thus there should be no surprise in the uproar over a report that in the past 18 months, more than $500,000 in California taxpayer money has been spent on new cars for state legislators, replacing cars that have been driven as few as 12,400 miles.

The state capital has witnessed four state senators arrested, indicted, and convicted of felony corruption. The state capital was raided by the FBI at one point as part of the investigation against one of those state senators. Former State Senate President Darrell Steinberg admitted on camera that there were more of his colleagues not living in the districts which they were elected to represent.

The new cars, including Ford Fusion Hybrids for state senators, are more environmentally sound than the old (or at least less-new) ones. Still, the expense, at a time when the state government still feels the pinch from the recession, understandably riles tax watchdogs. The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association’s Jon Coupal, a frequent op-ed contributor here, told the Los Angeles Times, “This is the kind of thing that drives citizen taxpayers crazy.”

By the way, Hadley was endorsed by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association against the Democratic incumbent, and while in 2012 he had campaigned on a platform of fiscal prudence in the South Bay, yet joined the tax-and-spend scene in Sacramento.

Today, the South Bay has a representative who understands what taxpayers go through and resists the take-and-take some more entitlement mentality of the Sacramento political class. The local media should be reporting on Hadley's decision, that finally one of the state assemblymembers is listening and responding to  local outrage at government waste and self-servitude.