The State Worker: Why government can't work like a business

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The State Worker

Chronicling civil-service life for California state workers

August 14, 2008

Why government can't work like a business

Today's State Worker column takes a look at how the state's budget mess is affecting your workplace and makes the point (we hope) that government is often messy because it can't operate like a for-profit business.

Even so, that can't be an excuse for poor planning, misallocated resources or flabby staffing. Government can't operate like business, but it still needs to be diligent about how it spends money.

My colleague Daniel Weintraub in his Sunday feature, The Conversation, observed, "Over the past five years, California's population has grown by 7 percent, and inflation has been 17 percent. But general fund spending has increased by about $26 billion, or 33 percent during that same period." Essentially, spending outstripped population growth and inflation by more than $7 billion over a five-year period.

From your perspective, what is driving this spending growth? What are you seeing in your departments and agencies? And if you have ideas about where the budget should be cut -- or perhaps you'd argue it shouldn't be cut at all -- you can share your insights with Dan by clicking here.

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