Golden State

I was watching California Connection on television last night and the program featured an interview with four previous governors and I must say that I have never seen so much baloney assembled in one place. There wasn’t a coherent thought in the entire group. I suppose that is one of the pitfalls of higher politics…you soon believe your own press releases and think you have greater mental powers than you really do. Surrounded by sycophants, what else can a political person believe? But there was a section of the show devoted to some statistics; a breath of fresh air! Or so I thought.

Unfortunately, the statistics were not cheerful at all. This segment was entitled “Grading California’s Government” and the test that California was being graded on was for “effective government management.” The results were a “C-” and a tie for last place with the state of Alabama. Hey! At least we were tied...

This evaluation came from the Government Performance Project, a non-partisan group which grades how well state governments handles “money”, “people”, “infrastructure” and “information”.

Here is a portion of what was said by the author of the report.

“While many Californians hold that the Golden State, with its size and potency, is an exception to almost every rule, the Government Performance Project asserts this exceptionalism is a lame excuse for sloppy work. The opening line of their evaluation is sure to evoke dreaded memories for anyone who ever came close to flunking an important class:

“People who work in California government love to talk about how their state dwarfs entire countries in both population and economy. Well, everybody needs something to be proud of. They certainly can’t talk about how the state dwarfs anyone in the quality of its management.”

Here is a link to that report, and you will find plenty of pdf’s on the site to download and read at your leisure.

http://results.gpponline.org/StateOverview.aspx?stateconst=STATE_CA

I have a feeling that my sister knew about this report…and that’s why she has moved to Arizona. It’s just a guess, but?