{"id":237731,"date":"2026-03-26T16:13:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T16:13:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/237731\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T16:13:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T16:13:18","slug":"before-sacramento-asks-for-more-it-should-do-better-capitol-weekly-capitol-weekly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/237731\/","title":{"rendered":"Before Sacramento asks for more, it should do better – Capitol Weekly | Capitol Weekly"},"content":{"rendered":"

Capitol Weekly welcomes Opinions on California public policy or politics.\u00a0Please read our guidelines for opinion pieces before submitting an\u00a0Op-Ed<\/a>. Submissions that do not adhere to our guidelines will not be considered for publication.\u00a0<\/p>\n

OPINION \u2013 Over just the past six years, California\u2019s state budget has ballooned from roughly\u00a0$200 billion<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0almost $350 billion<\/a>. That\u2019s a 75% increase. <\/p>\n

Does anything in California feel 75% better to you?<\/p>\n

California\u2019s budget has\u00a0grown faster<\/a>\u00a0than inflation, population or incomes. But some of our most visible challenges \u2013 including homelessness, the cost of homes and energy, and public school performance \u2013 have hardly improved or even gotten worse.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s time to confront the fact that more spending does not guarantee better results. We owe it to kids trapped in underperforming schools, homeless people suffering on our streets, and every Californian who is struggling to pay rising bills to make our spending more effective \u2013 because we need to stop funding failure and start funding results.<\/p>\n

Our wasteful bureaucracy, with its endless processes and inefficient tools, is a big reason we are spending more without doing better.\u00a0 So is outright fraud. We know that\u00a0up to $32 billion was stolen<\/a>\u00a0from our unemployment system in the last five years. The\u00a0Attorney General\u2019s office warns<\/a>\u00a0that fraud in healthcare spending could reach billions of dollars each year. In 2024,\u00a031 percent of financial aid applications<\/a>\u00a0in the state\u2019s community colleges were fraudulent.<\/p>\n

The people who suffer most from a government that spends more without getting better are not wealthy. It\u2019s working families struggling to pay the bills every month.<\/p>\n

One of the main reasons California is so expensive is that we\u00a0have one of the highest tax burdens in the nation<\/a>. Despite this reality, Sacramento looks at higher taxes as the first, and frequently the only, response to a problem. Taxing and spending more are not the same as doing and delivering more.<\/p>\n

So before we ask for more,\u00a0let\u2019s do better<\/a>. That starts with accountability.\u00a0 One of the most successful laws ever passed in California said that politicians wouldn\u2019t get paid unless they passed a budget on time.\u00a0 It\u2019s a big reason we haven\u2019t had a late budget since.\u00a0 Incentives work.<\/p>\n

We need a law that says if we fail to make progress on lowering unemployment, the poverty rate, the cost of housing, level of unsheltered homelessness and any number of other easily quantifiable metrics, politicians and political appointees shouldn\u2019t get raises. California needs to get out of the business of rewarding failure.<\/p>\n

To root out waste, every major program should have public goals, performance metrics and independent evaluation. If it doesn\u2019t work, reform it. If it still doesn\u2019t work, end it.\u00a0 And every annual budget should start at zero for planning purposes\u2013so we stop layering more bureaucracy on top of programs that no longer meet California\u2019s changing needs.<\/p>\n

This approach must include fixing the plumbing of government by modernizing outdated technology, simplifying procurement, and cutting duplicative layers and laws that slow delivery and inflate costs.<\/p>\n

Finally, California \u2013 where 75% of the State Auditor\u2019s recommendations are ignored and never implemented \u2013 must treat independent audits as action plans, not headlines. Findings from the State Auditor should come with timelines for implementation and consequences for agencies that ignore them.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m convinced that if we\u2019re willing to change how we do business in state government, we\u2019ll find the resources we need to teach our kids to read at grade level, bring every homeless person indoors,\u00a0build the housing we need<\/a>, lower energy costs, and create an economy that lifts more families into the middle class.<\/p>\n

This change starts with admitting the problem, measuring it, and fixing it \u2014 not pouring more money into\u00a0a dysfunctional\u00a0system.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what we did in San Jose, and it worked. We set public goals, measure performance, publish our results, and hold ourselves accountable. And the results show the power of radical transparency and accountability. San Jose is now the safest big city in America<\/a>. We\u2019ve built more safe, interim shelter than any city on the West Coast and we\u2019ve reduced street homelessness by nearly one-third. We slashed building fees and wait times for permits and thousands of new homes are now under construction.<\/p>\n

We need to take\u00a0the same approach in Sacramento<\/a>.\u00a0 And we can drive change by connecting all of this to the larger political moment. Californians want our leaders to protect the state from the threat of Donald Trump, who is directly assaulting our values and using our state\u2019s failures as ammunition in his war on California. The best way to fight back, and win, is to fix what\u2019s broken and prove to Californians and America our values can deliver results.<\/p>\n

Matt Mahan is the Mayor of San Jose and a Democratic Candidate for Governor<\/a> of California.<\/p>\n

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