Senator George Runner
Serving the 17th District which incorporates portions of the Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Ventura and Kern counties.

The Cato Institute, a non-partisan think tank, recently launched an ambitious project aimed at educating both policymakers and the general public about how the federal government is spending our money. They warn that the enormous budget deficits and gross overspending occurring in Washington right now are setting us, our children and theirs, up for even more financial turmoil—massive tax hikes and a reduced standard of living.

At DownsizingGovernment.org, Cato’s scholars provide not only an agency-by-agency breakdown of how much is spent and where, but specific areas where the federal government is failing taxpayers; where reform is needed; and where cuts should be made.

It’s a worthy effort, much like the way Senate Republicans have consistently advocated for greater transparency in how taxpayer dollars are spent, and for reductions to California’s over-bloated and inefficient bureacracies.

For years government grew and grew, with little or no accountability. More revenues were fed to the insatiable beast of bureaucracy, with negligible results. And during that time, we’ve been keeping track of the waste, fraud and abuse all too common in state government and in local jurisdictions throughout California. These “Waste Watchers,” are found on our website, and add up to more than $14 billion in just the last five years alone.

That’s your money effectively being flushed down the toilet by inept or corrupt government officials. I don’t even pretend that our list is comprehensive. In fact, I know it is just the tip of the iceberg.

Among the most egregious anecdotes: The Los Angeles Unified School District – a frequent subject of Waste Watchers – spends almost $175 million on consulting contracts with outside agencies. The expenses include a 14-month, $74,000 contract to provide monthly tech support for the superintendent despite the fact that LAUSD has an entire Information Technology Division to provide such services. In the same way it spent $194,030 on a consultant to train athletic coaches in ethical practices and decision-making when an internal ethics program already exists.

An audit released earlier this year concluded that the district could have saved $77 million in the 2006-07 school year had they just used their own employees instead of turning to high priced consultants to perform redundant functions!

These are just a few of the reasons why Senate Republicans propose that a minimum of 70 percent of education spending is dedicated to the classroom. Far too much money is being squandered at the administrative level.

California is home to Silicon Valley – birthplace of personal computers and ancillary technology. And yet California has paid $1.2 billion in federal penalties in the last decade because it was unable to design a statewide computer system to track and facilitate the collection of court-ordered child support payments. And there’s San Jose’s error-riddled pension system that overpaid retirees by millions.

Years ago we highlighted a Los Angeles County grand jury report that stated “about half of the $1.1 billion CalWORKS child-care program [is] being lost to fraud.” And yet it was only a few short months ago that we were able to get enough majority Democrats to concede the point and reform the abuse-ridden program.

Eliminating fraud, waste, bureaucratic redundancy and failed programs will continue to be one of our top priorities, especially as budget deliberations soon begin in earnest. The sad truth is that when Republicans call for government to live within its means, we’re invariably cast as heartless villains. According to the Democrats, the labor unions, and other champions of bureaucracy there isn’t a problem that can’t be fixed as long as taxpayers keep sending their hard-earned money.

Our Waste Watchers and Cato’s Downsizing Government project illustrate all too well however, that executive agencies at every level – federal, state and local – often squander our precious financial resources. The cold hard facts contained within these websites belie the pie-in-the-sky fantasy that more government expenditures will spend us into utopia.