Moldova spends a quarter of its defence budget guarding obsolete munitions.
While making the case against taxes, the governor has kept the details of his budget closely guarded.
Some say that the government has dispatched 1,200 people to guard him day and night, that there are several layers of checkpoints around the village, that the annual budget for guarding him is $7.8 million.
Experts on prisons say, however, that food is only a very small part of the overall cost of running a prison system -- about 80percentt of prison budgets go for guards' salaries -- so that any saving achieved by reducing inmates' food will be minimal and comes at a risk.
In an interview last week, Mr. Grucci said that if he were elected he would vote to protect Social Security, end the tax penalty on married couples, abolish inheritance taxes, guard budget surpluses against spending sprees and improve health care and education in ways proposed by the Republican presidential candidate, George W. Bush.
Details of the budget have been guarded closely by administration and Capitol Hill officials.
There was no budget to hire more guards.
The door to the services he needed was apparently being guarded by budget hawks.
He also steadfastly guarded the budget of public radio station KCRW, had foreign language tapes played in campus restrooms and gave a commencement speech to a restless high school class that only had three words: "Feelings.
In a city where jobs and budgets are tightly guarded, industry lobbyists voices are loud, issues more urgent than Styrofoam abound, and environmentalists are few and far between, a clear decision was made to vote for health, community and a cleaner planet.
