Dear Inquirer,
Government should respect your time, your work, and your tax dollars. When it doesn’t, it is our responsibility to step in, fix what is broken, and restore accountability on behalf of the people we serve.
Over the last year, we identified and eliminated nearly $1 billion in fraud, waste, and abuse from the state government. Those savings came from rooting out slush funds, eliminating duplicative programs, exposing the ghost employee scam, and stopping spending that was not producing results for taxpayers.
We did not stop there. House Republicans went further and cut an additional $645 million in wasteful spending that the governor wanted to roll over to next year without oversight. That is money that stays in taxpayers’ pockets instead of being tied up in hidden programs that lack transparency or accountability.
Efficiency means making sure the state government is actually functioning. After years of remote work policies that went unchecked, we eliminated more than 2,000 ghost employee positions and began bringing state employees back to the office so services are delivered effectively and responsibly.