State Budget
Blog
Broken Promises: The California High-Speed Rail Might End Up Being Little More Than A Regular Train — A Particularly Expensive One
Newsom denied that the cost — once a paltry, in comparison, $33 billion — had soared to $231 billion. “We’re actually making this project work,” he claimed. Newsom told Maher that the train “goes back three administrations” and he “inherited a mess” — both of which are true. It’s also true that the want-to-be-president governor ...
Blog
Newsom’s May budget portends future crises for local governments
Gov. Jerry Brown’s last budget spent $140.4 billion in the general fund for fiscal year 2018-19. Newsom’s May Revision to his 2026-27 budget exploded that to $246.6 billion. That’s a 76% increase in eight years at a time the state’s population didn’t grow and the Consumer Price Index rose just ...
Blog
Spending Watch
Spending Watch: Despite the Rhetoric, Newsom’s Revised Budget Confirms That California’s Budget Troubles Are Just Getting Started
Despite the Rhetoric, Newsom’s Revised Budget Confirms That California’s Budget Troubles Are Just Getting Started Wayne Winegarden May 2026 With the release of the May Revise, budget negotiations between the Governor, Assembly, and Senate will now kick into high gear. Tax revenues for the current fiscal year are better than ...
Blog
San Francisco new commission struggles to shut down commissions
San Francisco new commission struggles to shut down commissions Sal Rodriguez | April 10, 2026 San Francisco has too many government commissions. Who could’ve guessed? On January 30, the city’s Commission Streamlining Task Force issued a 134-page report on the 152 boards, commissions and similar bodies operating in the city under ordinance ...
Blog
Why Don’t We Find More Waste, Fraud and Abuse in California?
Shocking exposes of waste, fraud, and abuse in state government have dominated media headlines in recent weeks. Our friends Christopher Rufo and Kenneth Schrupp at the Manhattan Institute uncovered an unfinished wildlife “bridge to nowhere” in Agoura Hills, which has cost taxpayers over $100 million to date and counting. CBS ...
Blog
Read the latest on fraud in California government
Fraud in California Community Colleges Spurs Congress to Act
Across the country, financial aid fraud in higher education has skyrocketed, causing big budgetary hits for colleges and negative impacts for law-abiding students in true need. Perhaps the biggest explosion in financial aid fraud has taken place in the nation’s largest system of higher education—the California Community Colleges. With 2.2 ...
Blog
What Happens When the Government Pays for Enrollment Without Verifying Attendance
To understand why, you have to understand how the system actually works. The state does not simply write checks to parents. A low-income family qualifies for a subsidy, selects a licensed provider, and the state reimburses that provider directly on the family’s behalf through a network of Alternative Payment Program agencies. ...
Blog
Warning signs: Four California cities are facing fiscal crises in 2026
Many California cities will not fare so well on the fiscal roulette wheel. They’re not in Silicon Valley. Their local companies do not include Apple, NVIDIA, Meta/Facebook or Alphabet/Google (whose co-founders are leaving the state, while corporate HQ will remain). Those and many other companies’ rising stock valuations shed tax ...
Blog
Despite Newsom’s Claims, California is One of America’s Least Fiscally Stable States
Earlier this month, an optimistic Newsom claimed while presenting his latest proposed budget that it ‘reflect(ed) both confidence and caution,’ but if the state’s past performances are anything to go by, then Californians should be wary. The National Association of State Budget Officers’ (NASBO) latest Fiscal Survey of States shows ...
Blog
Spending Watch
Spending Watch: The Taxing Wealth Tax
The Taxing Wealth Tax Wayne Winegarden February 2026 To his credit, Governor Newsom is vowing to stop the wealth tax. As we noted in our response to Governor Newsom’s January budget, just the possibility that a 5 percent wealth tax will appear on the November ballot is having a chilling ...
Broken Promises: The California High-Speed Rail Might End Up Being Little More Than A Regular Train — A Particularly Expensive One
Newsom denied that the cost — once a paltry, in comparison, $33 billion — had soared to $231 billion. “We’re actually making this project work,” he claimed. Newsom told Maher that the train “goes back three administrations” and he “inherited a mess” — both of which are true. It’s also true that the want-to-be-president governor ...
Newsom’s May budget portends future crises for local governments
Gov. Jerry Brown’s last budget spent $140.4 billion in the general fund for fiscal year 2018-19. Newsom’s May Revision to his 2026-27 budget exploded that to $246.6 billion. That’s a 76% increase in eight years at a time the state’s population didn’t grow and the Consumer Price Index rose just ...
Spending Watch
Spending Watch: Despite the Rhetoric, Newsom’s Revised Budget Confirms That California’s Budget Troubles Are Just Getting Started
Despite the Rhetoric, Newsom’s Revised Budget Confirms That California’s Budget Troubles Are Just Getting Started Wayne Winegarden May 2026 With the release of the May Revise, budget negotiations between the Governor, Assembly, and Senate will now kick into high gear. Tax revenues for the current fiscal year are better than ...
San Francisco new commission struggles to shut down commissions
San Francisco new commission struggles to shut down commissions Sal Rodriguez | April 10, 2026 San Francisco has too many government commissions. Who could’ve guessed? On January 30, the city’s Commission Streamlining Task Force issued a 134-page report on the 152 boards, commissions and similar bodies operating in the city under ordinance ...
Why Don’t We Find More Waste, Fraud and Abuse in California?
Shocking exposes of waste, fraud, and abuse in state government have dominated media headlines in recent weeks. Our friends Christopher Rufo and Kenneth Schrupp at the Manhattan Institute uncovered an unfinished wildlife “bridge to nowhere” in Agoura Hills, which has cost taxpayers over $100 million to date and counting. CBS ...
Read the latest on fraud in California government
Fraud in California Community Colleges Spurs Congress to Act
Across the country, financial aid fraud in higher education has skyrocketed, causing big budgetary hits for colleges and negative impacts for law-abiding students in true need. Perhaps the biggest explosion in financial aid fraud has taken place in the nation’s largest system of higher education—the California Community Colleges. With 2.2 ...
What Happens When the Government Pays for Enrollment Without Verifying Attendance
To understand why, you have to understand how the system actually works. The state does not simply write checks to parents. A low-income family qualifies for a subsidy, selects a licensed provider, and the state reimburses that provider directly on the family’s behalf through a network of Alternative Payment Program agencies. ...
Warning signs: Four California cities are facing fiscal crises in 2026
Many California cities will not fare so well on the fiscal roulette wheel. They’re not in Silicon Valley. Their local companies do not include Apple, NVIDIA, Meta/Facebook or Alphabet/Google (whose co-founders are leaving the state, while corporate HQ will remain). Those and many other companies’ rising stock valuations shed tax ...
Despite Newsom’s Claims, California is One of America’s Least Fiscally Stable States
Earlier this month, an optimistic Newsom claimed while presenting his latest proposed budget that it ‘reflect(ed) both confidence and caution,’ but if the state’s past performances are anything to go by, then Californians should be wary. The National Association of State Budget Officers’ (NASBO) latest Fiscal Survey of States shows ...
Spending Watch
Spending Watch: The Taxing Wealth Tax
The Taxing Wealth Tax Wayne Winegarden February 2026 To his credit, Governor Newsom is vowing to stop the wealth tax. As we noted in our response to Governor Newsom’s January budget, just the possibility that a 5 percent wealth tax will appear on the November ballot is having a chilling ...