Failing grades for Newsom from his own state auditor

California’s nonpartisan auditor just failed eight state agencies run by Gavin Newsom, sending a clear message to residents: your state is broken.

While Newsom has hailed California’s laughable cost-cutting measures as the original “DOGE” – a model of “efficient, responsive, and accountable” government – the auditor has revealed the rot in devastating detail.

The auditor’s new report identifies the eight “high-risk” agencies that not only exhibit serious “waste, fraud, abuse, or mismanagement,” but also have failed to take “adequate corrective actions.”

Four of those eight agencies attained this dubious distinction during Newsom’s term, including the social services department, which was added this year.

The report found, for example, that massive payment error rates in the delivery of food assistance benefits
could cost the state $2.5 billion in federal funds.

It also discovered that fraud and improper payments for unemployment benefits continue to cost the state billions.

The report added that inadequate eligibility determinations for Medi-Cal (the state’s version of Medicaid) put billions more dollars at risk.

And it noted that California’s six straight missed financial reporting deadlines have put the state’s credit rating and federal funding in jeopardy.

There’s more.

The auditor noted that state enformation technology projects languish for months or years, as departments use antiqued systems despite Silicon Valley Being a stone’s throw away.

And alarmingly, most state entities “continue to fall short of minimum standards” for information security.

The security of physical infrastructure, too, is cause for grave concern: 49 dams pose an “extremely high hazard to life and property,” with the number of damns rated “poor” or “unsatisfactory” increasing by 73
percent over the last two years.

The incompetence described in the audit is stunning. In one remarkable example, the state’s
unemployment insurance program bought 7,224 mobile devices for employees to use from
home during the COVID years, then continued to pay service fees on over 5,000 of them years
after the pandemic ended, when they were no longer in use.

Another revealing example involves the California Air Resources Board, which continued paying one of its employees a $171,446 annual salary — 15 months after the employee left the agency.

Beyond this latest report, the staggering waste and inefficiency of California government is
unmatched. The state has spent $18 billion so far – of an eventual $128 billion – on a high-speed
train, yet has laid no track after 18 years.

Another audit found the state spent $24 billion on homelessness and lost track of the funds, while homelessness soared.

During the COVID years, unemployment insurance fraud amounted to at least $32 billion. And just weeks ago, the state scrapped a $650 million “Next Generation” 911 system because the technology didn’t work.

As a result of this dysfunction, the people of California are burdened with the nation’s highest
taxes, yet get strikingly little in return. They have witnessed the state budget grow by 50 percent,
or $124 billion, in five years under Newsom, while the quality of government service and the
quality of life have regressed.

California now leads the nation in poverty, unemployment, and homelessness. And many Californians simply can’t put up with it any longer, as the costs of political failure begin to exceed the benefits of living in our beautiful state. For four straight years under Newsom, California led the nation in outbound U-Haul rentals.

The political class that Governor Newsom exemplifies has largely insulated itself from the
consequences of its own failures. This was epitomized by Newsom’s infamous French Laundry
dinner during his COVID lockdowns, where he enjoyed the world’s finest dining while forcing
millions of Californians to stay at home.

When Newsom says California is a “model for the nation,” nothing could be further from the truth. Rather, the fate of our state under his leadership, as this latest audit attests, is a warning to the nation.

It is also evident in the recent indictment of Newsom’s former chief of staff, Dana Williamson, on federal felony corruption charges in a scandal that is ensnaring a number of Sacramento insiders – and is far from the first of its kind.

With 2028 on the horizon, whether we heed that warning will have profound consequences for America’s future.

Congressman Kevin Kiley represents California’s third congressional district.