His budget proposal still under fire from both sides in the Legislature, Gov. Jerry Brown today declared war on trinkets.
Brown directed all state agencies and departments to stop spending taxpayer dollars on free giveaway and gift items – key chains, coffee mugs, pens and so on – in order to cut costs. A statewide review revealed that from 2007 to 2010 state agencies and departments spent a total of $7.5 million on such items:
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Business, Transportation & Housing Agency — $5,088,037
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State and Consumer Services Agency — $1,154,960
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Health and Human Services Agency — $778,678
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Department of Food & Agriculture — $175,530
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Labor and Workforce Development Agency — $129,012
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California Volunteers — $77,387
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Environmental Protection Agency — $48,317
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Emergency Management Agency — $41,810
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Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation — $12,201
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Department of Veterans Affairs — $4,968
“Not a cent of taxpayer money should be spent on flashlights, ashtrays or other unnecessary items, most of which likely end up in landfills,” Brown said in his news release. “Every taxpayer dollar we save by cutting waste is a dollar that can be used to pay for critical public safety and social services.”
Dang – and I was hoping for a Sutter Brown plush toy.
Brown also has asked the Bureau of State Audits and the Little Hoover Commission to provide “Top 10” lists of ways to cut government waste and increase efficiency, and issued executive orders to freeze hiring across state government, cut state cell phones and halve the state’s passenger vehicle fleet.