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Government Spending & Efficiency

See our Accountability Files section for roundups of news articles about how our tax dollars are spent or misspent.

• Pension Crisis Swamps Cities and Counties. (Apr. '03)
  By Bob Taylor
• Casting a Long Shadow: Californians' Distrust of Government.
  (Nov. '02)
  From the Public Policy Institute of California
• Confessions of a City Budget Cutter (Nov. '02)
  By Linda Morrison
• Damage Control: Sacramento Begins Shaping a Post-Oracle Tech Agenda. (Oct. '02)
  By Joe Rodota
• Strong Economy is Overlooked Solution to Budget Shortfall.
  (July '02)
  By Allan Zaremberg
• Is There Still Fraudulent or Reckless Spending of Tax Dollars in California?  (July '02)
  By The Cal-Tax Staff
• Sacramento After Oracle: Don't Lynch Technology, Embrace It. (May '02)
  By Joseph Rodota
• Should the State Tighten Regulations on Local Economic Development? (Apr. '01)
  From the Public Policy Institute of California
• e-Government: From In Line to Online Public Services (Mar. '01)
  By Lyle D. Wray
• California e-Government: Catching and Riding the Wave (Mar. '01)
  By Ron Roach
• State Gambles, Taxpayers Lose (Feb. '01)
  By Greg Turner
• Death Row: Overcrowded and Crumbling (Dec. '00)
  By Bill Leonard
• Cities Playing a Blight Game. (Oct. '00)
  By Dan Walters, Sacramento Bee columnist. 
• Tightening Controls Over California's Special Districts: Lessons Learned from the WRD (July '00)
  By Marc Titel and Roger Wagner
• Special Districts: Relics of the Past or Resources for the Future?
  (July '00)
  By Richard R. Terzian
• Spending Limits in Era of Record Revenues (June '00)
  By Stephen Kroes
• Serious Talk of Fiscal Reform (Apr. '00)
  By Antonio R. Villaraigosa, Speaker of the California Assembly
• Child Care: Make it a Top California "Infrastructure" Issue (Apr. '00)
  By Tony Cardenas, Assembly Member
• Senator Jim Brulte: Invest Budget Surplus and Sales Tax on Gasoline to Fund Transportation Construction (Apr. '00)
  A Cal-Tax Q & A
• Shaping a Plan for State-Local Fiscal Reform (Mar. '00)
  By Chris McKenzie
• Project Labor Agreements: (Mar. '00)
  A Cancer Spreading Across California
  By Eric Christen
  PLA Will Increase Cost of San Diego Water Project
  By Scott Barnett
• "Bullet" Trains are Stuck at the Station (Mar. '00)
  By Bud Lembke
• Police, Fire Stampede to Retire?
  Legislation Sparks Fear of State Worker Exodus (Feb. '00)
  By Steve Geissinger
• An eGovernment Strategy for California (Feb. '00)
  By Bill Jones
• Voters Should Reject "Third Party Lawsuits" (Dec. '99)
  By Tony Quinn
• Cutting City Government Costs (Nov. '99)
  By I. D. Robbins
• California's Hidden Governments: A Case Study (Nov. '99)
  By Marc Titel and Robert Wagner
• Global Trends and the Quality and Cost of Public Services (Nov. '99)
  By Lyle D. Wray
• Property Tax Fairness Among Local Governments Means Consolidating Local Governance (Nov. '99)
  By Michael J. Coleman
• Voters may be Tightwads (Nov. '99)
  By Mark Baldassare
• California County Beats Y2K and Replaces Old Tax System (Oct. '99)
  By Mike Reed
• Riverside County Libraries Shelve Old Ways
  County is first in nation to hire private firm to manage system
  (Sept. '99)
  By Samuel Autman
• Year-Round Campuses, Coordination are Keys to Efficiency in Higher Education (Sept. '99)
  By Bill Hauck
• Special Report: Meeting California's Infrastructure Challenge: Assuring Cost-Effective and Timely Project Delivery (May '99)
  By Loren Kaye and Richard Kreutzen, for Cal-Tax and the California Chamber of Commerce
• Self-Help Counties - California's Transportation Success Story (July '99)
  By Carl Guardino
• A Municipalization Experiment Fizzles (July '99)
• A Budget of Higher Expectations (June '99)
  By Tim Gage
• Senate Republican Budget Plan: Rebuild Roads, Make College Affordable, Aid Local Government, Cut Taxes (June '99)
  By Ross Johnson
• Budget Surplus and the Economy (June '99)
  By Larry McCarthy
• Davis: NO on Higher Taxes, Period (May '99)
• Merit Pay is Critical to CSU Public Accountability (May '99)
  By Dr. Charles B. Reed
• Put Job-Training Programs Under One Roof (Apr. '99)
  By Patrick Johnston
• BOE: Committed to be More Technologically Savvy and Taxpayer-Friendly (Apr. '99)
  By John Chiang
• Government Needs a "Bottom Line" (Apr. .99)
  By Robert M. Hertzberg and George Runner
• Good News for Taxpayers: Better Planning (Apr. '99)
  By Larry McCarthy
• Building for Our Future (Mar. '99)
  by Bill Hauck
• Meeting California's Infrastructure Challenge
  Assuring Cost-Effective and Timely Delivery (Mar. '99)
  By Loren Kaye and Richard Kreutzen
• Mendocino County's Remarkable Turn Around (Feb. '99)
  By Mike Geniella
• Local Government Liability: A Major Cost and Exposure (Feb. '99)
  By John Wilson
• Government Spending: Higher and Higher (Nov. '98)
  By Stephen Kroes
• California Spending: Comparing State and Local Government Spending to Other States (Nov. '98)
  By Stephen Kroes
• Spending Lobby Spends Millions (Nov. '98)
  By Lisa Martin
• Continuing Conflict over Public Monopolies (July '98)
  By Carol Evans
• Fairway Practices: Privatizing Golf Courses, Part II (July '98)
  By Lisa Snell
• Privatization: Viable Solution to California's Prison Crisis (July '98)
  By David Myers
• Press Release: Proposition 224 defeated! (June 3, 1998)
• Proposition 13 Did Not Strangle Local Budgets (June '98)
  By Steven B. Frates
• Prop. 224: Damaging Everyone (Apr. '98)
  By Larry McCarthy
• Ventura Pension Ruling Hits Counties (Apr. '98)
  By Steve Keil
• Rethinking the Cal-Vet Loan Program (Apr. '98)
  By Elizabeth G. Hill
• Little Hoover Commission Reforms: Getting More for the Correctional Dollar (Apr. '98)
  By Charles G. Bakaly, Jr.
• Is Your City a Big Spender? Kosmont Cost of Doing Business Survey Points out Disparities in Revenue and Spending Habits (Mar. '98)
  By Larry J. Kosmont and Frank F. Taplin, with sidebar:
  L.A. Tax Equity Study - What Next?
• California's Performance Budgeting Pilot Project: A View from the Legislature (Feb. '98)
  By Craig Cornett
• Downsizing the California Parks and Recreations Department: Benefits to Taxpayers and the Parks (Feb. '98)
  By Donald W. Murphy
• The 'Spending Lobby' Swings a Well-Financed Stick (Nov. '97)
  By Dirk Werkman
• The 'Spending Lobby' Allies Push for Taxes (Nov. '97)
  By Ron Roach
• Alternatives to Rail: Rubber-Tire Transit (Oct. '97)
  By Thomas A. Rubin and James E. Moore II
• Restructuring the IRS - No Time for Beltway Politics (Sept. '97)
  By Ernest J. Dronenburg
• "What?" and "Why?" for Tax Exempt Bonds (June '97)
  By Bradley L. Jacobs
• Update: Council Overrides Riordan Veto (May '97)
• Spending Priorities for 1997 (Apr. '97)
  By Rebecca K. Taylor
• Wage Control Ordinance Hurts Small Business (Feb. '97)
  By Richard J. Riordan
• Proposed 'living wage' is costly, self-defeating (Dec. '96)
  By Rebecca K. Taylor
• L.A. Pension Scheme is Costly Budget Maneuver (Aug. '96)
  By Rebecca K. Taylor
• California Spending (July 1996)
  The newly expanded other half of our taxing and spending series. Uses 1992-93 data (the latest available) to compare California state and local spending priorities and trends to other states.
• CCRC Recommendations Shortchange Taxpayers (July '96)
  By Stephen Kroes
• It's Back to Basics for Government Efficiency (Feb. '96)
  By Rebecca K. Taylor
• Prevailing Wage: Source of Taxpayer Anger, But Needed Reforms are Proposed (Nov. '95)
  By Larry McCarthy
• Federal Block Grants Are No Excuse to Raise Taxes (Oct. '95)
  By Larry McCarthy
• Gasoline Taxes and Transportation Funding (Oct. '95)
  A brief comparison of California gasoline taxation and transportation spending to other states.
• Plan for Stabilizing California Public Finance (Mar. 95)
  Ten key reforms to California's spending and taxing policies that would save up to $14 billion.
• California Taxing and Spending (Oct. '94)
  Cal-Tax's annual bulletin comparing tax burden and spending to other states. This is the report written in 1994, which uses 1992 data.
• Revenue Crisis? (Aug. '94)
  While the spending lobby claims that California has not kept up with other states in government revenues and spending, a more detailed look at the data shows the opposite -- California dramatically outpaced other states in spending and revenues during the 1980s.