The total waste from the 2005-2010 editions of Waste Watchers, with a specific attributable dollar amount, comes to:

$17,188,687,664

Below is the total by year, as well as four archive files containing all of the 2005-2008 Waste Watchers used to calculate the total. Individual 2009 Waste Watchers are listed below that.

2010 Waste Watchers (see below): $2,259,350,000
2009 Waste Watchers (see below): $2,084,596,619
2008 Waste Watchers (pdf): $3,519,550,336
2007 Waste Watchers (pdf): $4,821,985,900
2006 Waste Watchers (pdf): $1,206,122,910
2005 Waste Watchers (pdf): $3,304,981,899

A recent city-ordered audit in Sacramento concluded its building department was out of control, costing the city millions and bypassing building rules.

Taxpayers are shocked to learn that California welfare cash is apparently benefiting tourist destinations in other states and territories. State welfare recipients have collected $11.8 million through ATMs in Las Vegas, according to recent news reports, but that turns out to be only the tip of the iceberg.

A Salinas school district dumped at least 26 and perhaps 50 additional pallets of English reading books worth up to $1.5 a half-million dollars -- books badly needed by a neighboring school district. The event should raise many questions for taxpayers about how California schools are managing their resources during this economic downturn.

Federal spending to create jobs has been a victim of the glacial pace of government bureaucracy in Los Angeles, where The Los Angeles Times reported two city departments that received $111 million in federal stimulus funds have created just 55 jobs so far...

Cal-Tax's investigation reviewed 127 quantifiable cases of state waste, fraud, and mismanagement based on government audits and media reports over the past ten years.

The revelation that the city manager of the modest, working-class city of Bell draws an $800,000 salary in the midst of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression provoked outrage from across the state and nation. But those who follow the spending habits of government know that while Bell might be an extreme case, it’s far from an isolated one.

Even Robin Leach would raise an eyebrow to the extravagant university housing provided to the president of the state's 10-campus U.C. system. According to the New York Times, Mark Yudof racked up expenses quickly over a two-year period, putting taxpayers on the hook to cover a $600,000 housing tab. This at a time when the UC system is proposing to raise already high tuition rates and must contend with layoffs and student protests.

At a time when the Los Angeles Unified School District is spending nearly $30,000 per pupil, laying off teachers and producing a 50 percent drop-out rate (the second worst in the country), all while enrollment is declining, why is LA Unified building the most expensive "mega-school" in the nation? According to the Associated Press, LA Unified just unveiled a new campus priced at $578 million, one that "has raised eyebrows across the country as the creme de la crème of 'Taj Mahal' schools."

Despite Skeen's $131,211 salary, he felt he needed more. He turned conferences in Honolulu into luxurious vacations for his family. He turned $198 airline tickets into $732 tickets, and kept the difference. He upgraded hotel rooms and car rentals and made up taxi fares that he did not take, and even took a limousine to the airport, costing $244 more than it would have to take the shuttle. All of these luxuries were paid for on the tax-payers dime.

"Trust, but verify," President Ronald Reagan famously advised. He was referring to international arms agreements, but it's good advice in almost any situation. Sacramento County officials didn't think about verifying a multi-million-dollar payroll service, and their lack of oversight may cost the county $17 million.

The California Public Employees' Retirement System lost almost $1 billion in a Southern California land deal now being challenged as land fraud. But CalPERS skipped the lawsuit and won't get a share if any money is repaid, preferring instead to "cut our losses and move on."

CSBA, which is suing the state over inadequate funding for K-12 schools, paid Plotkin $540,000 in 2007-08, including a bonus of $175,000, the same year that he used his business credit card to withdraw thousands of dollars in cash advances at casinos.

Hard times force people to pay attention to how they spend their money ... and to how government spends their money. While Democrats are proposing higher taxes, voters are already angry about two more news reports that show their tax dollars being squandered.

Like many local governments and like the state itself, the City of Los Angeles is facing a large budget shortfall and is considering everything from laying off workers to raising taxes in order to close the gap. But the City of Los Angeles could increase revenues by hundreds of millions of dollars - just by cashing in its IOUs.

California's economy has been hit hard. Workers and entire industries are suffering financial losses at unprecedented rates. Despite taxpayers' financial hardships, state and local governments have increased taxes or shifted tax burdens to everyday California workers and businesses in order to continue funding excess spending.

State-issued Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards provide cash benefits intended to help recipients with minor children feed and clothe their families. These cash benefits come from taxpayers' pockets, but they can be withdrawn at regular ATMs and spent freely by recipients. A recent Los Angeles Times investigation found that EBT cards can be used to withdraw cash in more than half the casinos in California - not a big surprise given the lax oversight of the benefit cards.

In another egregious instance of mismanagement of tax dollars by a government agency, employees of the Los Angeles County Probation Department are alleged to have made numerous inappropriate purchases using government credit cards and gift cards.

Confirming many Californians' sneaking suspicions about how their tax dollars are actually managed, an audit report has found that the City of Los Angeles somehow managed to lose - or 'misplace' - nearly a million dollars worth of items.

Most of us would agree that providing for the safety of students is an appropriate expense. At one California campus, however, it appears that a public employee charged with protecting students from violence perpetuated a series of egregious violations of the public trust.

The number of city workers paid at least $100,000 in base salary totaled 6,449 last year. When such extras as overtime are included, the number jumped to 9,487 workers, nearly eight times the number from a decade ago. And that calculation doesn't include the cost of often-generous city benefits such as health care and pensions.

Recent allegations concerning two separate government-funded entities in the Los Angeles area go beyond the description of "waste". These government employees' indiscretions are shocking and indefensible, including hospital workers who set up a make-shift beauty salon in a ward for high-risk newborns, and Department of Water and Power employees drinking and going to strip clubs while collecting a paycheck. Hired to serve the public, these employees have forgotten their job descriptions and the public's best interest.

According to the Office of the Inspector General, as reported by Caltax, prison pharmacy staff is "concerned about the sheer amount of wasted medication in prison pharmacies.” Understandably so, because the waste is a result of incredible inefficiencies — like computer systems so antiquated that old-fashioned paper tallies are commonly used. An audit estimates at least $13 million is wasted every year.

"California's nursing homes have received $880 million in additional funding from a 2004 state law designed to help hire more caregivers and boost wages... But 232 homes did just the opposite. They either cut staff, paid lower wages or let caregiver levels slip below a state-mandated minimum," reported Cailfornia Watch. "One such owner is John D. Lund, who allegedly submitted cost reports for landscaping, interior design and welding inspection bills that were not, as the report suggested, for a Sacramento nursing home. The work was actually completed on Lund's sprawling Santa Barbara County estate, an affidavit filed in Sacramento Superior Court says."

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, UC Berkeley "manages its finances a bit like a sloppy undergrad." The University, which employs 21,000 government employees and has a $1.8 billion budget hired the consulting firm last fall to come up with recommendations on how to streamline their business operations, and avoid making further cuts

According to the Contra Costa Times, Harris attempted to dismiss a whistleblower and stonewalled several investigation attempts. You might expect poor results when you put a politician in the role of chief educator, but even so, Harris' actions are shocking.

According to the Los Angeles Times, March 10, 2010, the county's financial woes are being compounded by self-serving expenditures. Instead of subjecting themselves to the financial austerity the times would seem to demand, Los Angeles County supervisors would apparently rather spend millions of taxpayer dollars to bolster their public images, pay for chauffeurs, and hold parties for friends and lobbyists.

In another case of costly mismanagement CalPERS paid $600 million to obtain 9 percent of financial firm Apollo Global Management, yielding former CalPERS board member and current placement agent Alfred Villalobos a commission of $13.2 million - and sticking CalPERS with a $475 million loss. This is the latest reverberation of an influence-peddling scheme that has rocked the nation's largest pension fund in recent months.

As much as $11.5 million in state payments in 2008 may have been lost because of inaction to ensure the validity of payments to providers of care. In 2008 alone there were 129 cases in question for just Fresno and San Diego counties which add up to approximately $464,000 and $538,700 of questionable payments made.

"Even as the state grappled with a budget crisis last year, bureaucrats spent nearly $45 million on new vehicles, almost $30 million on new furniture and more than $2 million on off-site meetings and conferences." The free spending continued regardless of calls from Governor Schwarzenegger to be more responsible.

The Los Angeles school district paid $200 million more in salaries than it budgeted last year even as it laid off 2,000 teachers and hundreds of other employees, according to an internal audit. At a time when unemployment is near an all time high-a whopping 12.4 percent--it is disgraceful that 2,000 teachers and hundreds of other employees lose their jobs while the district spent $2 million in salaries that were unbudgeted. How many students could have benefited from those extra funds?

..a teacher removed from the classroom in 2002 for alleged misconduct continues to receive full pay eight years later as his case still moves through an appeals process.  According to the Los Angeles Times, "He was removed from the classroom in 2002 and required to report to a district office every workday as his case wound through the disciplinary system. Though he continued to receive up to $68,000 in annual pay plus benefits, he was given no duties.  He has been sidelined with pay longer than any other teacher disciplined by the district. L.A. Unified has spent more than $2 million on his salary and legal costs."

Santa Clara County's cash-strapped public hospital (Valley Medical Center) is running up an average tab of $650,000 per year for taxpayer-funded travel to these lavish destinations far away from home.

California State University reimbursed a high-ranking official in the chancellor's office $152,441 for expenses he should not have billed to the university, according to a report released Thursday by the state auditor... Howle called attention to Ernst's frequent global travel, including trips to Amsterdam, Singapore, London and Melbourne, Australia... 'We found the official took trips that did not appear to have a clear or demonstrable benefit to the state or university. In addition, there was no need for the official to regularly attend non-university events, particularly given the costs involved.

"... [T]he state wasted $8 million during the past two fiscal years on penalties for bills that weren't paid on time," according to an October 2009 Los Angeles Times investigative report. "An internal audit of the state Parks and Recreation Department last year found that it had incurred late payment penalties of $232,000 in the preceding two years... An accounting error by the Fresno County Auditor's Office led to the county overpaying schools $34 million in property tax revenue over four years, the Fresno Bee reports…Overpaying schools is one thing, but how about $22 million taxpayer dollars to put up paroled sex offenders in apartments and motels? According to a Contra Costa Times report, "Some parolees have received housing assistance for more than two years after being released from prison."

Incredible! Millions of dollars could have been saved just by using the expertise on UC campuses. The system has, for example, multiple senior administrators with Ph.D.s who are getting nice paychecks for their expertise, the Budget Office staff gets paid to solve budget problems, and the renowned Haas School of Business has a world class lineup of business experts and graduate programs in financial engineering, global management, accounting, financing, and operations management.

Two of the state's largest departments spent more than $5.5 million on new cars and trucks this year only to leave them idle and gathering dust for months. One department still has pickups and larger trucks parked in its yard that it bought during 2006, 2007and 2008... The Department of General Services spent $1.2 million on 50 new hybrid Toyota Prius sedans in February, with state agencies committed to buying only 13 of them, state purchasing records show. The Bee found and photographed the cars on the top floor of the state garage near the Capitol, where they were parked for months. All were moved after The Bee asked about them.

"Santa Clara County's move to charge astronomical fees for public access to its electronic maps has backfired in a $500,000 legal settlement. Government watchdogs say it is the largest payment of its kind in a California records disclosure dispute..."

"The university disclosed its findings in response to a whistle-blower lawsuit filed …by a medical researcher, who claimed that she was retaliated against after she reported $175,000 was improperly charged to grant accounts..."

"the Board President Kin-Shree Maufas charged $4,300 on the district's Diners Club card for a wide range of personal purchases. They included more than $2,000 for a cultural exchange trip to China. $196 for tickets to the Florida Epcot theme park, $40 for black Crocs, a $125 car battery and a $162 car windshield, $160 in U.S. Passport processing fees, a $37 medical visit in Los Angeles and $3 for apple iTunes."

"In a statement on the California State University's website, the CSU Board of Trustees say they have raised fees and ordered furloughs in response to 'one of the greatest fiscal emergencies in the history of California.' Still, the CSU campuses are adding to the cost of educating students by continuing to allow faculty to take paid sabbaticals-including sabbaticals dedicated to writing books on the afterlife, illustrating children's books, writing operas and painting."

State Auditor Elaine Howle blasted the Department of Corrections for skyrocketing costs. The department's budget increased nearly 32 percent, to 10 billion, from 2005 to 2008 even as the number of prison inmates declined.

Teacher unions' have been unwilling to renegotiate current contracts. "Districts across California have asked their teacher unions to consider furloughs and one-time salary freezes in order to backfill budget shortfalls. But those concessions haven't been easy to come by... ." Elk Grove Unified laid-off seven teachers in May, but will issue $5.2 million in raises to teachers and counselors for the upcoming year. Sacramento City Unified laid-off 281 teachers in May and is considering furloughs and salary freezes for the 2010-11 school year. And yet, step increases costing $2.5 million already have been approved. Moreover, because of budget cuts, Sacramento City Unified has increased class sizes and cut summer school for elementary and middle-school students.

Under duress from California labor unions and union-backed politicians, the University of California system is funding a labor institute at the Berkeley and Los Angeles campuses that trains union organizers and produces biased studies to support the union political agenda... UC President included $4 million for the labor institute in his proposed budget approved by the UC Board of Regents. This amount could have protected more than 6,000 resident undergraduate students from the fall 2009 semester fee increase of $662."

"The financial shortfall is exacerbated by pension spiking, where public employees are allowed to count perks, such as unused vacation time and sick leave, toward their final compensation just before they retire. Adding those factors raises total pension benefits substantially."

The results of over-zealous judges ruling in favor of onerous regulations on farmers under the guise of protecting the environment has "included damage to permanent crops, including orchards and vineyards that sequester carbon and help combat global warming, job losses, reductions in public school enrollments, greater toxic pollution of farmland, groundwater overdraft, increased electricity consumption and air pollution from dust caused when farmland is fallowed for lack of water. About 500,000 acres have gone unplanted this year, about 800 square miles of the world's most fertile farmland."

"At a time when most Californians are forced to do more with less, one might ask why public employees have a pension system that is far more generous than anything private-sector workers can expect. Union politics is a quick answer."

"In 2006, voters approved Measure I, which allocated $15 million in bond funds for revocations and new construction at South Coast schools. Some of that work was completed last summer, much of it out of compliance with state codes…The report notes an estimated $5.3 million of bond money has been spent on temporary school buildings that won't be there longer than five years."

"Turbo Tax software, large digital TV screens, a GPS navigation system, a digital camera and a laptop are among the items Contra Costa elected leaders have purchased with the county's professional development perk…[a] former county administrator also bought a new computer system one month before he retired and several managers purchased televisions with the money intended to reward top managers and elected officials who seek to enhance their workplace skills."

The current process for firing ineffective teachers is so burdensome and biased in favor of protecting teachers "at all costs" that administrators decide to keep them on staff in order to avoid the high cost of discharging them…Estimates…based on data provided by the school district found that the practice cost more that $2.1 million over the past six years.

"Of the approximately 525,000 cases that currently involve cash assistance from CalWORKS, only 22% are meeting the minimum program requirements…. Make sure every Californian getting a CalWORKS check has to check in just twice a year so a supervisor can keep tabs on their progress. If they make zero progress, their benefits run out after two years rather than the current five. By doing this, we could save $850 million over the next two budget years, and ultimately $1.5 billion per year - and we could save the CalWORKS program."

A recently released audit found that "the [Los Angeles County] Probation Department exceeded its overtime budget by an average of 126 percent over the past five years. ... All told, the 6,400-member department exceeded its overtime by an average of $9.8 million over the last five fiscal years."

"The Natomas Unified School District purchase of 41 acres of farmland for six times its value in 2007…and also found that a lawyer representing the school district in the purchase did not reveal he had a conflict of interest until three months after escrow closed. A senior property appraiser from the California Office of Real Estate Appraisers who testified before the grand jury said the property was actually worth $50,000 to $60,000 an acre in 2007, for a total value of about $2 million, not $13.3 million that was paid."

"San Jose Unified decided to purchase an expensive pizza machine at $720,000. Then took pizza off the menu…The district has to cut $29 million from the budget by the end of next year. Add up the initial purchase price of the Pizzamatic and all the other repair costs related to the pizza machine and you have a $4.2 million bill! For that kind of money, they could have bought 28 olympic-sized swimming pools or more than 200 baseball fields."

"The just-named new chancellor, Linda Katehi, will earn a great deal more, $400,000. She also will get a $100,000 relocation allowance, moving costs, [and] a car allowance of almost $9,000 a year… This kind of pay at a public university would be excessive even during flush economic times. But during an economic bust, it's unconscionable. It comes as students in the college class of 2009 can expect lower wages for a decade."

Wouldn't it be nice to get paid big bucks to quit your job? Unfortunately for taxpayers, that is precisely what is happening in the city of Vallejo…."The city of Vallejo reached a tentative agreement to pay its city manager $390,000 to resign, marking yet another bitter divide in a city that filed for bankruptcy almost a year ago…Tanner had been a lightning rod for criticism because of his salary - $341,000 annually - which made him the fourth-highest paid city manager in the state, even though Vallejo has a population of only 117,000."

"for seven years, the Los Angeles Unified School District has paid Matthew Kim a teaching salary of up to $68,000 per year, plus benefits. Every school day, Kim's shift begins at 7:50 a.m., with 30 minutes for lunch and ends when the bell at his old campus rings at 3:20 p.m. He is to take off all breaks, school vacations and holidays, per the district agreement with the teacher's union. All this while, unbelievably, "At no time is he to be given any work by the district or show up at school."

Recently, the San Francisco Chronicle posed this question, "How many BART workers does it take to fix a broken train seat?" Two--and that is no joke." The Bay Area Rapid Transit System (BART) won't win any awards for efficiency—in fact, it could be the poster child for government waste. Its motto must be "the more the merrier"--more workers doing the same thing, more money spent doing the same job, and more money paid to its executives.

It's been said, "[N]othing is worse, or more of a breach of the social contract between citizen and state, than for government officials, bureaucrats, and agencies to waste the money entrusted to them by the people they serve." This is certainly true. But, clearly, it is not the motto of at least one public employee who must believe taxpayer dollars exist for her own personal pleasure.

Historically, California has been known for its gold, the lure of which attracted pioneers and prospectors from far and wide in search of wealth and opportunity. Today, however, the "Golden State" motto might more accurately refer to the generous "golden parachutes," granted to public employees. A particularly sad example for taxpayers: the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitations has paid over a million dollars to fired employees.

During these tough budget times, many school districts are finding ways to maximize funding going into the classroom. That's precisely why parents should be outraged that at least one district is using tax dollars to keep a teacher out of the classroom.

The "Golden Years" have just become a little brighter for some special university employees. With looming budget cuts, reducing workforce costs is a sound administrative solution. However, the benefits for a number of University of California employees will surprise you. According to the Sacramento Bee (December 6, 2008), "16 employees (were) paid a total of $682,431 to leave jobs in the UC President's Office."

Los Angeles is no stranger to government waste, fraud and mismanagement. Sadly, yet another example of Los Angeles government officials' appetite for wasting taxpayers' hard-earned money has come to light.

While taxpayers struggle to make ends meet, some creative bureaucrats in a little known agency are misusing taxpayers' hard-earned money for dubious purposes. They are investing in private industries that do nothing to provide a public benefit and are using the money for political purposes, which is prohibited by California law.

The San Diego Community College District offers yet another example of how government officials cost taxpayers millions of dollars unnecessarily. In this case , the district costs taxpayers more by simply not acting on decisions to purchase land in a timely manner.

With reckless abandon, Los Angeles city leaders gave payroll increases and lucrative compensation packages for city workers, which can be directly attributed to the $406 million budget deficit they are now facing for fiscal year beginning in July. Sadly, city leaders knew they were putting Los Angeles' future into financial jeopardy by agreeing to the payroll raises last year—but did so anyhow.

The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), the state's biggest and second-largest school district in the nation with more than 700,000 students, known for incompetence and corruption, has yet again, come under investigation for spending an enormous amount of taxpayer dollars on questionable contracts - while the district, not to mention the state, is facing historic budget deficits.

Back in May 2004, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered state agencies to expedite the sale of an estimated $5 billion in surplus state properties. It was an ambitious plan designed to help the state raise money it badly needed.

Every politician wants an all-star staff but must work within the means of funding to do so in an honest manner. San Francisco's Mayor Gavin Newsom obviously disagrees with this practice. As his behavior transcends any kind of spending limitations or accountability set by law, city agencies lose money and the city's frustration grows.

As California and its citizens worry about the bad economy and massive budget deficit facing the state, the University of California continues to run an island paradise for a few students and professors, subsidized with taxes and student tuition.

Here's some exciting news for those in search of a very, very alternative energy source. We are anticipating the greatest advance in renewable energy since the windmill or solar panels - power generated by breast-feeding. It was, however, the only conclusion we arrived at when the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power revealed its latest project.

Each year, CalTrans spend millions cleaning the state's highways. One item that CalTrans is finding more and more of - urine filled-bottles. Yes, apparently some idiotic drivers like doing number one in the number two lane and throwing bottles of their urine alongside highways.

San Francisco's City Hall is going to install a ten-foot-long chunk of history and it's projected to cost over $1.1 million dollars. This new wheelchair ramp has to be gold-gilded Yellow Brick Road that leads to the Land of Oz. How else can one explain the extravagant costs.

After years of litigation - costing millions of taxpayer dollars - the California Department of Education has finally settled with a whistle-blower turned former employee. This whistle-blower claimed retaliation by the Department and former Superintendent of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin when he reported massive fraud in the department.