California: The Dysfunction All Around

(Image from Facebook)

California's dysfunctions--homelessness, crime, taxes, regulatory red-tape, schools that don't educate, housing costs, etc.--have been written about endlessly, and not just by opponents of Progressive ideology.

One aspect of that ideology is intense criticism, even vilification, of other power centers (religion, private enterprise, Republicans, etc.) that won't toe the line. The irony is that California's government can't even meet the minimum performance standards that other institutions are held to. [bold added]

for five consecutive years, California has failed to produce audited financial statements on a timely basis. In fiscal 2021, California took 642 days to issue its Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, more than twice the nine months the federal government allows for such reports. New York took only 120 days to issue its 2021 financial report.

One reason for California’s tardiness is the incomplete rollout of the state’s new accounting system. Launched in 2005, the Financial Information System for California, or FI$Cal, was intended to streamline the state’s financial processes. But 18 years and $1 billion later, FI$Cal has yet to be fully implemented, forcing accounting staff to consolidate data across multiple systems.

Also complicating recent attempts to produce a state audit was the pandemic-era meltdown of California’s unemployment system. Although many states had problems keeping up with the rush of unemployment claims in Spring 2020, California’s crisis was far worse, combining long delays for legitimate claimants with tens of billions in benefits collected by scammers. Unlike most other states, California had no procedure for matching claimants against a list of prison inmates...

California’s local governments are taking on their own big, hairy, audacious goals and not attending to core services. San Francisco is studying reparations for slavery and implementing public banking, while failing to provide public safety and clean streets. Cities around the state are adding sustainability managers to reduce municipal carbon footprints, even though any individual city in California contributes a small fraction of 1% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Why don't California residents, the majority of whom can see the dysfunction all around them, try to change things? It's a puzzlement that's worthy of serious study.