Is California on a bender?
The state’s per-capita spending has more than tripled over the past 50 years, even when adjusted for inflation, according to state data (crunched by yours truly).
Its population has doubled over that time — the sort of growth that often comes with increased efficiencies. Which means, you might expect to see fewer state workers for every 1,000 residents. But rather than decreasing, the number of state workers per 1,000 residents has grown.
These rather startling statistics, squatting in plain sight in the state budget, were brought to our attention by David Crane — a registered Democrat, it seems important to point out here.
Crane served as a special advisor to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger from 2004-10, has a background in financial services, served on the University of California Board of Regents, and the California High-Speed Rail Authority, and the California Economic Development Commission, and the Society of Actuaries Blue Ribbon Panel on the Causes of Public Pension Underfunding, and the Volcker-Ravitch Task Force on the State Budget Crisis, and as a director of the California State Teachers’ Retirement System.
Which is to say, his bona fides are firm. Crane is now a lecturer in public policy at Stanford University and co-founder and president of Govern For California, a non-profit “seeking to counter special interest influence in the California state legislature.” He writes often about the state of fiscal affairs in Sacramento in a way that can leave folks frothing at the mouth.
“General Fund Expenditures Per Capita have climbed 63.9% since Governor Newsom took office, growing at more than twice the annual rate at which those expenditures grew under Governor Brown (10.4% vs. 4.7%),” Crane wrote earlier this month.
“Of course, Mr. Newsom didn’t approve all that spending on his own,” he continued, noting the Legislature’s eagerness to spend. “Time will tell if they and Mr. Newsom are interested in…
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