With newspapers in decline, stories about government waste, fraud and abuse tend to get short shrift. One notable exception is Jon Ortiz of the Sacramento Bee, whose “State Worker” columns demonstrate how waste works. For example, California’s Board of Equalization, a tax agency, wanted to replace a door. The initial cost for that simple…
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As we recently noted, injustices such as wrongful imprisonment, needless trial expenses and prosecutorial errors cost California taxpayers $282 million from 1989 to 2012. These costs are hardly the only problem in the criminal justice system, as Dan Walters of the Sacramento Bee observes. Walters has been on the job since the 1970s and…
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Taxpayers are familiar with waste in boondoggles such as California’s $68 billion bullet train project and the new span of the Bay Bridge with its cost overruns of $5 billion. Likewise, State Parks bureaucrats keep a hidden slush fund of $54 million and education bosses get lavish salaries and benefits unconnected to student achievement….
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Government waste abounds in California but is not always easy to spot. Veteran observer Dan Walters of the Sacramento Bee suggests a hard look at “overlapping and utterly confusing governmental entities that cloud accountability.” His first example is the California Coastal Commission, by some accounts the most powerful land-use body in the nation, and…
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While millions around the world watched the Academy Awards on February 28, Brian Lamb of C-SPAN was hosting Thomas Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste. The interview confirmed that when it comes to wasting taxpayers’ money, government bureaucrats are endlessly creative. Lamb recalled the first Golden Fleece award in 1975, a project of…
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California Senate boss Kevin De Leon was recently asked to approve a new chief for the state’s Bureau of Electronic and Appliance Repair, Home Furnishings and Thermal Insulation. The startled senator replied that he “never heard of this department in my entire life until Rules Committee.” He may since have learned that this bureau,…
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We have been keeping track of California’s so-called high-speed rail project, backed by governor Jerry Brown and facing huge problems. As in Blazing Saddles, one thing stands in the way of the land they need: the rightful owners. The farmers, in particular, are not eager to sell. The project will supposedly cost $68 billion,…
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Covered California has not been much in the news of late, but that does not mean that all goes well with the Golden State’s wholly owned subsidiary of Obamacare. As we noted last year, Emily Bazar of the Center for Health Reporting wrote that Covered California’s computer system is “responsible for countless glitches and…
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On February 10 in Morro Bay, the California Coastal Commission (CCC) fired its executive director Charles Lester. For any government body to fire the boss is exceedingly rare, and this case should prove educational for all Californians. For one thing, what Lester had done wrong remained unclear. On his watch, no major environmental disaster…
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Contrary to what many politicians seem to believe, government makes mistakes. For example, as the intrepid Jon Ortiz of the Sacramento Bee notes, the state of California recently overpaid some 20,000 employees. The overpayments amount to $37 to $101 per employee and, overall, about 5 percent of all state paychecks in a single month….
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