From bloated budgets, to wasteful spending: Why California needs its own DOGE | Opinion

If any government were in desperate need of a DOGE effort, it’s California. The bloated budget, wasteful public works projects and inefficient government programs are all screaming for attention.

The federal Department of Government Efficiency has become famous — and certainly infamous in some minds — for its efforts to root out waste, uncover fraud, cut down bureaucratic barriers and save taxpayers money.

Former multiterm Gov. Jerry Brown once said that reforming the California Environmental Quality Act is “God’s work.” The same could be said of a DOGE-like effort in California.

The state’s next budget, for the fiscal year 2025-26 that begins July 1, is likely to be about $322 billion. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed spending package includes a modest $363 million surplus (which, of course, could change with the May revision). It would take no miracles for a DOGE-like agency or department to find tens of billions of dollars of waste and fraud, as well as bureaucratic excess. It would merely require a dedicated effort.

Start with the high-speed rail flop. Voters approved a $33 billion project in 2008 with an estimated cost as high as $128 billion (it’s about $106 billion today and needs an infusion of at least $7 billion this summer to continue its march to, well, who knows where it will end up?). The train has been troubled by administrative foundering and would be a fat target for a DOGE team to deconstruct.

Then there are the billions of dollars that have been uselessly expended on anti-homelessness programs. Over a five-year period, the state spent $24 billion to relieve homelessness, during which time the population grew from roughly 151,000 to more than 187,000. An audit found that a “lack of coordination among the state’s homelessness programs had hampered the effectiveness of the state’s efforts”; the local governments, which are primarily responsible for implementing state programs, haven’t been as accountable as they should be; and the Interagency Council on Homelessness “has not established a consistent method for gathering information on homelessness programs’ costs and outcomes.”

We imagine that digital sleuths would also like to take a deep plunge into the “additional $2.8 billion loan to address a bloated deficit in” Medi-Cal, the state Medicaid program, which is due largely to the state’s commitment to free health-care coverage for undocumented immigrants.

They might also enjoy following up on reports from the Legislative Analyst’s Office, which has noted that “virtually all departments” provide insufficient information “to justify even small increases in their budgets.” The office also seems frustrated with the government’s inability — or surely, in some cases, its outright refusal — to “identify and implement efficiencies across nearly all state entities to produce ongoing budgetary savings without adverse effects on state services.”

A determined, independent team could force a resolution if given a chance.

Zac Townsend, the state’s first chief data officer, told CalMatters that “California, with its $322 billion budget and perennial fiscal crises, desperately needs a similar reckoning.” It can’t be done, though, with Elon “Musk’s sledgehammer” and “recklessness.” It has to be accomplished, he says, “with a scalpel guided by data and transparency.”

A nice thought, but it’s a luxury.

The raw truth is that any attempt to confront the waste, enforce accountability and reverse runaway incompetence and alarming malfeasance has to be done hard and fast, with zero concern that critics will complain it’s an ambush. Even with DOGE’s edgy methods, we’ve seen defenders of the status quo lawyer up, block DOGE employees from entering federal buildings and enlist a willing media to support their cause. If they have time to prepare their defense, a scalpel will do no more than scratch the surface.

This story was originally published May 1, 2025 at 5:00 AM with the headline "From bloated budgets, to wasteful spending: Why California needs its own DOGE | Opinion."