I mentioned earlier about the secret rumblings coming from the Schwarzenegger administration and now, the California Performance Review has finally been published and it's a doozy -

The report makes more than 1,000 recommendations, covering nearly every type of government operations. The plan recommends consolidating 91 state agencies and departments into 11 super departments. Of the roughly 315,000 workers now on the payroll, 12,000 would be sent packing. More than 115 state boards and commissions would be eliminated, pushing nearly 1,200 board members out of public service. More than 6,500 miles of state highways would be shifted over to local jurisdiction.

Cost?

The potential cost savings alone, $32 billion over the next five years, is reason enough to take the California Performance Review team's recommendations seriously.

The sum would easily wipe out the state's structural deficit and leave more money for essentials like transportation and education.

Now I'm not about to dive into the details (and they are certainly controversial) BUT, I will point out to the Governator's detractors that this direction is 110% polar opposite to where Gray Davis was going and where Bustamante wanted to drag us.   

I'm old enough to recognize that there's a long way to go from the symbolic act of writing a report to the concrete one of writing 12,000 pink slips.   Still, I'm impressed with the audacity displayed to date and hopeful that this is a harbinger of things yet to come.  Even if Schwarz & crew get only a quarter of what's they're asking for, that's still far better the simply digging a deeper hole as Davis/Bustamante would've done.