Posted on 10/18/2004 8:10:51 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO – Despite initial promises of saving billions by overhauling state government, it now appears likely that only a fraction of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to "blow up the boxes" of California bureaucracy will see the light of day.
Key Schwarzenegger advisers are said to be divided over whether to push politically unpopular proposals, such as eliminating regulators of the state's air quality. Members of the team that crafted the California Performance Review have come forward, saying many proposals were conceived by staff who knew little about what they worked on.
And as a Schwarzenegger-appointed commission to take public comment on the plan prepares for a final meeting Wednesday in Irvine, some commissioners are calling the proposal a well-intentioned but half-baked hodgepodge that needs more work and public exposure.
The Performance Review is a Schwarzenegger-commissioned government reform plan that recommends everything from eliminating entire wings of state bureaucracy to selling the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa.
When Schwarzenegger unveiled a draft of the plan in August, he said it could save taxpayers $32 billion. Aides often refer to the proposal as an antidote to budget woes and a way to avoid tax increases.
But initial savings assessments have been reduced to $15 billion. And as the administration gears up to implement the plan next year through executive orders, legislation, budget proposals and possibly a ballot measure, expectations have scaled back.
Even Schwarzenegger himself, when talking about elements of the plan such as education reform, sometimes steers away from the report's language of streamlining and cuts.
(Excerpt) Read more at ocregister.com ...
Good thing they banned .50s. That should save the state a lot of money in this fiscally difficult time.
I still haven't seen any lowering of Workmans Compensation....I am sure glad that agency will be in charge of the new health insurance program when Prop 72 passes.
I have yet to see one state agency lay anyone off either!
I guess 'bureacracy' is a terrible thing to waste. /sarcasm.
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