Re "Cal Fire burns taxpayers by hiding our money" (Editorials, Feb. 4): Your editorial states, "In a budget that exceeds $130 billion, $3.6 million might be considered dust." Since recent revelations have shown that the state Department of Finance has been remiss in keeping track of the budget, let's look at THEIR budget. They have less than 500 personnel to oversee a budget of roughly $100 billion, or $500 million per employee.
Just how much can we expect one finance overseer to see, if each overseer has responsibility for $500 million worth of budget plus fiscal audits plus business practices plus program effectiveness plus personnel changes plus proposed legislative actions plus fiscal projections to handle?
As the state budget has grown by leaps and bounds in recent decades, how much has Finance's capability for oversight of the state budget grown?
-- Wendy Potter Padgett, Mountain View
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