Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks), a California state senator, has introduced a bill (SB 1428), that goes after the dizzying array of state boards, agencies, and commissions. The bill, which is written to sunset after three years, would require a thorough audit of all state agencies by California's fiscal authorities and the "Little Hoover" commission, and link all of the deadwood into a single package for the legislature to vote upon. Since there is little appeal trying to publicly defend a vote to preserve useless agencies (as opposed to the hidden deals that usually preserve them), this bill, which passed 33-1 in the California Senate, should be passed into law.
The Los Angeles Times has written an editorial supporting this measure, but the last paragraph of the editorial is simply wrong:
One other point: McClintock is so stingy with the public's tax money he's proposing to limit the commission to $250,000 in the first year and $500,000 over its lifetime of two to three years. That's about enough for an office, an executive director and a few low-paid aides. It may take a bigger bureaucracy than that to really attack the bureaucracy.
Office space is not going to be a big requirement—an office somewhere in one of California's many state government buildings will suffice. In fact, with the advent of the internet as a communications tool, a few small offices, located in different areas of the state, could be used, with a net cost of $0 for rent. As to the salaries of workers, why would a high-paid executive director need to be hired? This is something that can be handled by mid-level employees, without supervision. In fact, there are a wealth of good-government/anti-waste groups out there (liberal, conservative, and nonpartisan) that would be more than willing to assist in such an effort, free of charge. Judicious use of available resources would allow this low-budget project achieve significant savings to the state's taxpayers, and probably improve service as well.
posted on May 30, 2002 07:40 PM
