California needs to overhaul state agencies
The latest scandal by the Employment Development Department is now mushrooming into a near billiondollar fraud scheme. Inmates of state and federal prisons filed fraudulent jobless claims which the EDD paid without question, while cheating millions of actual unemployed out of their earned benefits. Meanwhile, top officials at EDD are refusing to cooperate with district attorneys while EDD bureaucrats say their regulations prevent them from halting payments to claimants, even when fraud is discovered.
This is just the latest in a mindboggling procession of epic incompetence by California agencies: the California Public Utilities Commission’s utter lack of oversight on Pacific Gas and Electric Co.: the High Speed Rail Authority, which in 12 years can’t even connect Fresno to Modesto; Department of Motor Vehicles’ Real ID bungle. And now, EDD.
It’s no wonder California is the Republican’s poster child for bad government. You can draw a straight line from these epic failures to Californians’ reluctance to approve the endless parade of tax increases our legislators load onto every ballot. What? You need more money because you can’t manage the exorbitant sums we give you every year? Sorry, no. California must learn to live within its means and, more importantly, ruthlessly overhaul all our incompetent, underperforming state agencies.
Larry Bothen, Pacifica