State’s plan to boost efficiency is pure Newsom
We’ll withhold judgment about the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency until we see some action. Virtually every administration vows to cut waste from the federal government, but the new department at least gets the basic idea right. DOGE is designed to cut federal spending and eliminate agencies in the face of a $36-trillion national debt.
Here in California, Gov. Gavin Newsom is pitching himself as an advocate for a leaner state government. It’s such a preposterous claim that it’s gotten pushback from the mainstream media. CalMatters keyed off of a speech Newsom gave in Turlock last week, where the governor said he wants to “make sure our money is being well invested, not wasted. … Our DOGE is spelled ODI.”
Leave it to Newsom to champion a new state agency as a method to ensure efficiency. He created the Office of Data and Innovation in 2022, which promises to use technology to “develop a statewide culture of innovation.” In what world does a costly new department lead to greater efficiency? It does encapsulate Newsom’s approach: talk a good game and then spend more tax dollars.
CalMatters nailed it: “But his approach as governor has been nearly antithetical to DOGE … (I)n his six years in the governor’s office, Newsom has steadily guided California’s government to expand its mission and scope: launching flashy initiatives, creating new departments and offering more services to more people, even during periods of deficit.” The number of state employees has soared to record levels, it added, although he did shutter some prisons.
Newsom has busted records on state spending. Fueled by an influx of federal cash, Newsom in 2022 found himself with an enviable $97.5-billion surplus — and then proceeded to spend it as quickly as possible rather than to use the windfall as a means to rebuild the state’s infrastructure, shore up its pension systems and solve some long-term problems. Yet he has the audacity to tout his bloated budget as a “new bold economic vision.”
After the historic surplus turned into a massive deficit, Newsom avoided hard choices. As columnist Dan Walters observed, that budget mess was “self-inflicted,” as the governor and Legislature relied on overly optimistic revenue predictions to keep the spending train chugging along. Then faced with a huge gap, he passed a “budget full of gimmicks.” The new revenue numbers have stabilized, but let’s not kid ourselves. Newsom’s approach is to always spend more tax dollars.
We might forgive him for his profligacy if the state had made serious progress in dealing with its long-running and pernicious problems. Yet the state’s housing-unaffordability, homelessness, crime, infrastructure, insurance, energy and other crises continue to fester. He occasionally hits the right note — such as his executive order calling for the suspension of onerous building regulations to speed up fire recovery — but he rarely tries to slash red tape.
And he loves announcing bold, new objectives — even if they fail to materialize. For instance, check out the excruciatingly slow progress on Newsom’s plans to have California produce insulin or build thousands of tiny houses for the homeless. California’s government can’t even meet its most basic responsibilities let alone do so efficiently, so forgive us for concluding that his latest talk is anything more than a cry for attention.