California governor-elect Mr Arnold Schwarzenegger has named veteran Republican congressman Mr David Dreier as head of the new administration's transition team.
Mr Dreier, who will announce the rest of his team and its plans later today, is best known as an aggressive proponent of free trade and tax reductions and a believer in removing taxes and regulations on business.
Mr Schwarzenegger also pledged to move quickly to tackle the state's dire financial plight while sticking by his campaign promise not to raise taxes.
"We don't know exactly what the current operating deficit is. It went from $7 billion to $8 billion to $10 billion," Mr Schwarzenegger told a news conference.
He warned the amount could double if a legal action attempting to stop the state from issuing bonds to fund the current state deficit succeeds.
Mr Schwarzenegger said he would appoint a team of independent auditors to go through the budget line by line to find items that could be eliminated.
"I want to see the waste and I want to open up the books to the people of California so that they also see where the waste is, where the billions of dollars are," he said.
In his first news conference since sweeping to victory in Tuesday's election, Mr Schwarzenegger repeated campaign pledges to repeal an increase in the state vehicle tax, promote business growth and reverse legislation granting illegal immigrants the right to receive driver's licences.
Mr Schwarzenegger has also begun courting top California Democrats.
He spoke to Democratic senators Ms Dianne Feinstein and Ms Barbara Boxer and State Senate president Mr John Burton in a series of calls seeking to make his first 100 days in office as smooth as possible after angry voters ousted unpopular incumbent Democratic Governor Gray Davis.
Ms Feinstein, who waged a strong campaign to help Mr Davis remain in office, said she was ready to help Mr Schwarzenegger and called a rumoured Democratic effort to subject him to a recall drive a "mistake."