LANHEE CHEN: I’LL BE A SPENDING WATCHDOG THE STATE HAS NEVER HAD
Q: What in your background makes you the best candidate for this job?
A:I am the only candidate for controller who combines experience in policy-making, education and business with a strong belief in the values of fiscal responsibility, transparency and independence.
I was raised in Southern California and I am the son of immigrants from Taiwan. After attending my local public high school, I went on to earn four degrees from Harvard University, including a law degree and a doctorate in political science.
I then had the honor of serving in senior roles in both Republican and Democratic presidential administrations. For the last nine years, I have taught at Stanford University and conducted research at the Hoover Institution, a public policy think tank on campus.
In my career, I have helped leaders in California and around the country develop policies to address some of our most pressing fiscal challenges, like improving our health care system, saving Social Security and growing our economy.
My writings have appeared in America’s biggest newspapers, and I have frequently shared my ideas on television news programs across America.
I built my own small business, which provides advice on fiscal and other policy issues to leaders in the public and private sectors. I am an investor who works with entrepreneurs and innovators to help them grow their businesses and create jobs. And I’ve been chairman of the board of directors of a community health system in the Bay Area.
Together, I believe these experiences have prepared me well to be our state’s next controller.
Q: Assess outgoing Controller Betty Yee. What did she do well or not do well?
A: Betty Yee has served competently as controller and exhibited an ability to be independent of other state elected officials at times. I also applaud her for sounding the alarm on some of the challenges in our tax system and the need for reform.
But I believe we would take fundamentally different approaches to the job. For too long, we’ve elected controllers who have been more interested in fitting into the one-party establishment in Sacramento than standing up for taxpayers first.
I would be far more aggressive in using the controller’s audit authority to determine not only the whereabouts of state funds, but also to look at the efficacy of some of our state’s biggest spending priorities.
I would also look to bring complete and total transparency to the roughly $300 billion in checks the Controller’s Office writes each year; something that Controller Yee has argued we do not have the technological capacity to do.
Finally, I would use my seat on the two large public pension program boards — California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) and the California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS) — to promote full transparency into our state’s long-term pension obligations and ensure that both funds are focused first on delivering promised benefits to current and future retirees, as well as serving as good stewards of taxpayer resources.
Q: California’s computer payroll system is outdated, and prior controllers have been unable to fix the problem. What, if anything, would you do?
A: Like other efforts at “technological improvement” in Sacramento, the attempt to update our state’s payroll system has been a disaster.
California’s current payroll system dates back to the Vietnam War era and was instituted at a time when far fewer people worked for the state.
For the last decade, state controllers have labored in vain to get our state payroll system modernized.
Controller Yee launched the latest revamp of the system in 2016, when the state approved $21 million for the project.
This year, Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed spending over $500 million for the project over the next several years.
And now the project is not estimated to be done until 2028.
Now that we have a plan in place to complete this project, it’s time to get the job done — with no more excuses.
As controller, I will make the upgrade of our state payroll system a priority project.
I will accept responsibility for finishing this upgrade on-time and on-budget.
We’ll set clear goals for what the project will and won’t include, and then work with the best minds inside and outside of government to leverage the best technology to complete the project, once and for all.
More broadly, we need a fresh look at systems modernization projects, not just with respect to the state payroll system, but beyond.
We should look toward innovators and entrepreneurs outside of government to help us with these challenges.
As controller, I will look to forge public-private partnerships to help address our biggest systems challenges.
Q: What are three areas in the office where you would make major changes?
A: First, I will focus on protecting California taxpayers from fraud and wasteful spending. That means using the controller’s audit power far more aggressively and frequently. The controller is our state’s independent fiscal watchdog. I won’t need the Legislature or governor’s permission to audit state spending or local programs using state funds. I intend to use this audit authority to delve into areas ranging from public education to infrastructure spending, areas that have not been examined carefully, in some cases, in decades.
Second, I will hold the Sacramento politicians accountable. For too long, we’ve had controllers who have been lapdogs for other elected officials, rather than watchdogs for our state’s taxpayers. We need to hold policymakers accountable for their promises. This is particularly important as we consider the tens of billions of dollars in federal assistance and state funds that were supposedly spent to address challenges in K-12 education and public health in our state. How was this money actually spent? Californians deserve answers and, as controller, I will finally make sure they get them.
Finally, I will ensure true transparency into our state finances and promote fiscal responsibility. The Controller’s Office was unable to disclose to the public where each one of the roughly 50 million payments it made — totaling over $300 billion in 2018 alone — went. We need a machine-readable, searchable and accessible line-byline database of state spending. California’s taxpayers deserve nothing less.