Back when he was running to replace Gray Davis, Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger’s constant pledge was that he’d be
”
the people’s governor.
”
The polls show most Californians believe he’s kept his word.
Back when he was running to replace Gray Davis, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s constant pledge was that he’d be “the people’s governor.” The polls show most Californians believe he’s kept his word.
But when it comes to politicians, it’s always better to watch what they do, not what they say. That’s especially true when the politician involved also happens to be an accomplished actor.
For Schwarzenegger’s performance has been something quite different from his rhetoric and from the public perception, at least as it’s measured by opinion polls.
While the governor still says he’s for “all the people,” most of his efforts have furthered the interests of big business. Not all businesses, but most often the very large ones.
His latest effort on their behalf is a proposed budget provision that would give the state 75 percent of all punitive damage judgments awarded in court. Plus, his plan would permit only one punitive assessment against a company, even when a violation – deliberate or not – affects more than one person.
If this became law, it would likely end most product liability lawsuits. It could end most employee actions spurred by harmful conditions in the workplace. It would end most anti-tobacco lawsuits and it could stymie almost all anti-pollution lawsuits. In short, it would let big business off the hook for untold potential future misdeeds because it would destroy the motivation and impact of lawsuits that have led to landmark settlements and improvements.
Take tobacco. If big tobacco companies had to pay punitive damages only for what they’d done to one smoker, what are the odds state attorneys general would ever have won the huge settlement of a few years back that is now helping reduce both state and local budget deficits? Slim to none.
What’s more, tobacco company memos have demonstrated that their strategy long was to endure a few lawsuits and a few judgments without changing what they did because the dollars they could be assessed would be negligible by their big-bucks standards. Take away the possibility of large, multiple punitive judgments, and they will be right back to that strategy.
If the state takes three-quarters of all punitive damages, how many lawyers will accept cases on contingency against companies like Pacific Gas & Electric, whose landmark defeat in one pollution case was documented in the movie Erin Brockovich? The plaintiffs there could not afford to pay fees to their lawyers, nor could the lawyers have pursued the case for years without the incentive of a potential large punitive judgment.
Small business rarely gets hit with big punitive judgments. Those are almost always reserved for big business.
Similarly, it’s only big businesses that would be able to opt out of buying their power from California’s major utility companies under a plan endorsed by Schwarzenegger in early May. He would let them contract for the cheapest possible electricity, leaving small business and residential customers to buy only from the most expensive power sources.
Then there’s the governor’s refusal so far to get involved in efforts both to hold down the price of gasoline and to compel the Shell Oil Co. to keep operating its refinery at Bakersfield, which produces about 2 percent of California’s gasoline.
While Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer are active in the effort to keep that refinery going, Schwarzenegger has said nothing about it.
Oil companies are big businesses, and Schwarzenegger’s chief of staff formerly was a lobbyist for one. But it’s small businesses that get hurt most by the increasing price of gasoline. If they want to keep functioning, they’ve got to keep trucks moving and pay employees increased mileage expenses. Plus, they must buy airplane tickets for employees, even though prices there also are up due to the high cost of jet fuel.
Schwarzenegger doesn’t seem to care about any of this. He has no trouble paying for fillups for his gas-hogging Hummer. He has no problem paying his electric bills or tuition for his kids’ private schools.
The force of his personality and his worldwide celebrity has so far kept the mass of voters from noticing much of his favoritism for big business over small business and other little guys.
Will someone, somewhere eventually point out that the emperor has no clothes?
Tom Elias’ syndicated column appears Wednesday’s in the Free Lance. Reach him at [email protected].
