Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) called the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) a “promo stunt.”
“We’ve been working, I don’t know, before DOGE was DOGE,” he said. “I don’t know, this is like a promo project.”
“We’ve been doing civil service reform in this state, we’ve been consolidating job classifications, we’ve been updating job descriptions in this state and we waived those requirements,” Newsom continued. “And in fact, I think it was in August, earlier, in August, we came up with your shop. We’re gonna double that next year. In fact, by 32,000, it’ll be 62,000 positions we will have eliminated those barriers and that requirement. I’ve always been a leader in that space.”
DOGE has drawn attention to the wasteful spending in the state, highlighting its high-speed rail project.
“Summary of California High Speed Rail Project: -Originally projected (in 2008) to cost $33 billion; now projected to cost between $88.5 and $127.9 billion -Estimated completion date was 2020; as of 2024, zero passengers have been transported and the majority has not even been fully designed -Received $6.8 billion in federal funds -Requesting $8 billion in additional federal funds,” DOGE wrote on X.
An April audit found that California spent $24 billion over the past five years to combat homelessness without consistently tracking whether the massive expenditure improved the situation.
The audit analyzed five programs that received a combined $13.7 billion in funding. It found that only two programs were “likely cost-effective,” one converting hotel and motel rooms into housing and another providing housing assistance to prevent families from becoming homeless. Three other programs that received $9.4 billion since 2020 could not be evaluated due to a lack of data.
