Private Sector Can Help Solve Budget Crisis

(Washington, D.C.) – Today the 167,000 members and supporters of Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) in California called for the state’s next governor to initiate a full private sector audit of the state government modeled after President Reagan’s Grace Commission.

“If California’s next governor is serious about the $38 billion budget deficit, he or she must take a comprehensive, business-like approach to waste and pork in the state budget,” CAGW President Tom Schatz said.  “A state Grace Commission would be an effective means to locate and eliminate wasteful spending.  The result will be a more efficient and accountable government, improved delivery of services, and savings for the taxpayers of California.”

The President’s Private Sector Survey on Cost Control, also known as the Grace Commission, was a two-year project directed by President Reagan to root out government waste, mismanagement, and inefficiency.  It was based on a similar commission that then-Governor Reagan had in California.  From 1982 to 1984, 161 corporate volunteers led an army of 2,000 volunteers on a waste hunt through the federal government.  The effort was funded entirely by voluntary contributions from the private sector; it cost taxpayers nothing.  The Grace Commission made 2,478 recommendations, which, if implemented, would save $424.4 billion over three years, an average of $141.5 billion a year all without eliminating essential services.  Through the implementation of some of these recommendations, CAGW has helped save more than $700 billion since its inception.

“Californians are already some of the most overtaxed citizens in the nation,” Schatz continued.  “The prospect of raising taxes to erase the deficit would be a slap in the face.  A state Grace Commission would give lawmakers the option of cutting wasteful spending without raising taxes.”

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford is taking a similar approach to the budget deficit in his own state.  In June, the governor signed an executive order establishing the Governor’s Commission on Management, Accountability, and Performance to pore through the state’s budget and submit a report in September.

“History illustrates that removing politics and using a private sector approach to increase efficiency is the best way to improve government performance,” concluded Schatz.  “The California recall movement is a revolution against the fiscal incompetence of politicians.  CAGW hopes the incoming governor uses that momentum to appoint private sector experts who will work, in Ronald Reagan’s words, like ‘tireless bloodhounds’ to solve the budget crisis.”    

Citizens Against Government Waste is the nation's largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.