OPINION:
California Gov. Gavin Newsom thinks he is ready to be president after 2028. His management of America’s most populous state suggests otherwise.
California State Auditor Grant Parks released a series of reports in December detailing the billions of dollars squandered on Mr. Newsom’s watch. The investigations singled out the “high risk” agencies plagued by “waste, fraud, abuse, or mismanagement or the impaired economy, efficiency, or effectiveness may result in serious detriment to the State or its residents.”
That’s one way of saying Mr. Newsom is challenging Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the former Democratic vice presidential nominee, for the title of wastrel in chief.
President Trump sets a positive example in the other direction. He instructed his Cabinet chiefs to slash unnecessary expenditures and cancel grants to flimflam artists. As a result, the feds are finally double-checking the legitimacy of food stamp claims in each state. That’s bad news for Mr. Newsom.
The auditor says California stands to lose $2.5 billion for its CalFresh program because of its sky-high payment error rate. “The changes in the [One Big Beautiful Bill Act] will require California to pay for 15 percent of its SNAP benefits if it does not decrease its PER to below 10 percent,” he wrote.
Similar problems abound with the unemployment insurance, COVID-19 fund distribution, projects supposedly meant to help the homeless, MediCal and the state’s financial reporting procedures. As thousands of Los Angeles residents have learned, California’s water infrastructure is completely broken, and that will lead to “significant risk to human life and property,” Mr. Parks explained.
A 2023 audit discovered that 88 dams within the state are in woeful condition, posing a “significant” hazard for anyone living downstream.
Mr. Newsom’s minions show little interest in fiscal responsibility. For instance, the state Employment Development Department paid $4.6 million in fees to Verizon and T-Mobile for 3,000 unused mobile phones, half of which hadn’t been turned on in years. Top agency executives collect $260,000 in annual salary and benefits, whether public money is well spent or not.
The same incentive structure is in place at the California Air Resources Board, where pay packages of up to $400,000 aren’t enough for some. Auditors caught one worker pocketing an extra $170,000 in phony accrued leave because “CARB did not perform regular leave audits, and it did not have a process in place to compare leave recorded on the employee’s timesheet with the SCO leave system.”
According to the audit, managers at the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control used official vehicles to commute to work and drop off the children at school, which isn’t permitted. As the report notes, “It is unlawful for state employees to use public resources for personal purposes that are not authorized by law, and the law makes misuse of state property a cause for discipline.”
Scamming employees racked up thousands of improper miles on the state-owned cars, but that’s not as offensive as what went on at the Department of Parks and Recreation. Leaders there misused the department’s credit card and were found to have faked purchase receipts to justify the bogus spending.
Scandals of this sort are commonplace because Mr. Newsom’s acolytes know he doesn’t care. Having held statewide office since 2011, Mr. Newsom’s eyes are now on Washington. He is not troubled by problems closer to home.
If the former mayor of San Francisco can’t clean up his own backyard, then he shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near the Oval Office.
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