Matt Mahan

40 full-time people out in the field with clipboards, going around, making contact with folks who are homeless, offering them resources, which at the time was largely maybe some informational pamphlets about things they can go learn more about or an appointment they can sign up for, but not really addressing the most foundational need.

We've brought a lot of that in-house.

We've right-sized it.

We have fewer outreach workers.

We're training them, I think, more rigorously.

We have more data collection.

We went from the average outreach worker having nothing to offer to shifting dollars so that we were building a lot of shelter and operating alternatives to the streets so that the smaller number of outreach workers could have much more impact by actually offering somebody something real, a real solution.

So those are the kinds of things where if the elected officials who are managing these public budgets are not really thinking about the outcomes that matter and how to measure success

and aren't willing to apply performance metrics to the spending, you can end up spending millions of dollars on things that aren't really delivering the results that the public thinks they're getting or is demanding.

Well, nothing.

That's part of why I'm running, because I think we can spend our money more effectively.

We spend a lot in California.

Our budget this year is proposed at about $350 billion.

Six years ago, it was about $200 billion.

That's a 75% increase in spending in six years.

I don't think anything's gotten 75% better.

And as the state spends, most of that money is actually spent.

The programs, the services are executed at the local level through counties, cities, and school districts.

And there's an opportunity for the next governor to tie that spending to performance and be really clear about the outcomes we should be delivering.

If Mississippi, which spends significantly less, I don't know if it's half, but significantly less per pupil than California, can get over 90% of their third graders on grade level for reading, we can do that in California.