Latest news with #WhitneyTucker
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Rapidly expanding school voucher programs pinch state budgets
An elementary school math teacher instructs a fifth grade class at a private school in Wheeling, Costs are skyrocketing as states rapidly expand school voucher programs, which divert public funds to pay for private school tuition. (Photo by Gene J. Puskar/The Associated Press) In submitting her updated budget proposal in March, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs lamented the rising costs of the state's school vouchers program that directs public dollars to pay private school tuition. Characterizing vouchers as an 'entitlement program,' Hobbs said the state could spend more than $1 billion subsidizing private education in the upcoming fiscal year. The Democratic governor said those expenses could crowd out other budget priorities, including disability programs and pay raises for firefighters and state troopers. It's a dilemma that some budget experts fear will become more common nationwide as the costs of school choice measures mount across the states, reaching billions of dollars each year. 'School vouchers are increasingly eating up state budgets in a way that I don't think is sustainable long term,' said Whitney Tucker, director of state fiscal policy research at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a think tank that advocates for left-leaning tax policies. Vouchers and scholarship programs, which use taxpayer money to cover private school tuition, are part of the wider school choice movement that also includes charter schools and other alternatives to public schools. Opponents have long warned about vouchers draining resources from public education as students move from public schools to private ones. But research into several programs has shown many voucher recipients already were enrolled in private schools. That means universal vouchers could drive up costs by creating two parallel education systems — both funded by taxpayers. School vouchers are increasingly eating up state budgets in a way that I don't think is sustainable long term. – Whitney Tucker, director of state fiscal policy research at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities In Arizona, state officials reported most private school students receiving vouchers in the first two years of the expanded program were not previously enrolled in public schools. In fiscal year 2024, more than half the state's 75,000 voucher recipients were previously enrolled in private schools or were being homeschooled. 'Vouchers don't shift costs — they add costs,' Joshua Cowen, a professor of education policy at Michigan State University who studies the issue, recently told Stateline. 'Most voucher recipients were already in private schools, meaning states are paying for education they previously didn't have to fund.' Voucher proponents, though, say those figures can be misleading. Arizona, like other states with recent expansions, previously had more modest voucher programs. So some kids who were already enrolled in private schools could have already been receiving state subsidies. In addition to increasing competition, supporters say the programs can actually save taxpayer dollars by delivering education at a lower overall cost than traditional public schools. One thing is certain: With a record number of students receiving subsidies to attend private schools, vouchers are quickly creating budget concerns for some state leaders. The rising costs of school choice measures come after years of deep cuts to income taxes in many states, leaving them with less money to spend. An end of pandemic-era aid and potential looming cuts to federal support also have created widespread uncertainty about state budgets. Trump's school choice push adds to momentum in statehouses 'We're seeing a number of things that are creating a sort of perfect storm from a fiscal perspective in the states,' said Tucker, of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Last year, Arizona leaders waded through an estimated $1.3 billion budget shortfall. Budget experts said the voucher program was responsible for hundreds of millions of that deficit. A new universal voucher program in Texas is expected to cost $1 billion over its next two-year budget cycle — a figure that could balloon to nearly $5 billion by 2030, according to a legislative fiscal note. Earlier this year, Wyoming Republican Gov. Mark Gordon signed a bill expanding the state's voucher program. But last week, he acknowledged his own 'substantial concerns' about the state's ability to fund vouchers and its public education obligations under the constitution. 'I think the legislature's got a very tall task to understand how they're going to be able to fund all of these things,' he said in an interview with WyoFile. Voucher proponents, who have been active at the state level for years, are gaining new momentum with support from President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans. In January, Trump ordered federal agencies to allow states, tribes and military families to access federal money for private K-12 education through education savings accounts, voucher programs or tax credits. Last week, Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee voted in favor of making $20 billion available over the next four years for a federal school voucher program. Part of broader work on a bill to extend Trump's 2017 tax cuts, the measure would need a simple majority in the House and the Senate to pass. Sweeping private school voucher program tucked inside US House tax bill Martin Lueken, the director of the Fiscal Research and Education Center at EdChoice, a nonprofit that advocates for school choice measures, argues school choice measures can actually deliver savings to taxpayers. Lueken said vouchers are not to blame for state budget woes. He said public school systems for years have increased spending faster than inflation. And he noted that school choice measures make up a small share of overall state spending — nationally about 0.3% of total state expenditures in states with school choice, he said. 'Public schooling remains one of the largest line items in state budgets,' he said in an interview. 'They are still the dominant provider of K-12 education, and certainly looking at the education pie, they still receive the lion's share. 'It's not a choice problem. I would say that it's a problem with the status quo and the public school system,' he said. Washington, D.C., and 35 states offer some school choice programs, according to EdChoice. That includes 18 states with voucher programs so expansive that virtually all students can participate regardless of income. But Lueken said framing vouchers as a new entitlement program is misleading. That's because all students, even the wealthiest, have always been entitled to a public education — whether they've chosen to attend free public schools or private ones that charge tuition. 'At the end of the day, the thing that matters most above dollars are students and families,' he said. 'Research is clear that competition works. Public schools have responded in very positive ways when they are faced with increased competitive pressure from choice programs.' Public school advocates say funding both private and public schools is untenable. Some states reexamine school discipline as Trump order paves go-ahead In Wisconsin, Republican lawmakers are considering a major voucher expansion that would alter the funding structure for vouchers, potentially putting more strain on the state's general fund. The state spent about $629 million on its four voucher programs during the 2024-2025 school year, according to the Wisconsin Association of School Business Officials, which represents employees in school district finance, human resources and leadership. The association warns proposed legislation could exacerbate problems with the 'unaffordable parallel school systems' in place now by shifting more private schooling costs from parents of those students to state taxpayers at large. Such expansion 'could create the conditions for even greater funding challenges for Wisconsin's traditional public schools and the state budget as a whole,' the association's research director wrote in a paper on the issue. In Arizona, Hobbs originally sought to eliminate the universal voucher program — a nonstarter in the Republican-controlled legislature. She has since proposed shrinking the program by placing income limits that would disqualify the state's wealthiest families. That idea also faced Republican opposition. Legislators are now pushing to enshrine access to vouchers in the state constitution. Marisol Garcia, president of the Arizona Education Association, the state's 20,000-member teachers union, noted that vouchers and public education funds are both sourced from the general fund. 'So it almost immediately started to impact public services,' she said of the universal voucher program. While the union says vouchers have led to cutbacks of important resources such as counselors in public schools, Garcia said the sweeping program also affects the state's ability to fund other services like housing, transportation and health care. 'Every budget cycle becomes where can we cut in order to essentially feed this out-of-control program?' she said. Stateline reporter Kevin Hardy can be reached at khardy@ SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
CBS News
09-04-2025
- Business
- CBS News
Florida, other GOP states go 'DOGE-ing,' mimicking Musk's branding as they call attention to spending cuts
Republican governors and lawmakers in more than a dozen states are tapping into Elon Musk's brand, borrowing from his Department of Government Efficiency's approach — and in many cases, its name — to draw attention to their own bids to slash spending. The state efforts have been slower to start and smaller in scale — a reality that follows years of fiscal austerity in states where Republicans have long been in power, and where budgets are already required to be balanced. In most cases, governors and lawmakers have merely added new names, or launched new committees, to highlight reductions for which they've spent years claiming credit. Unlike the federal DOGE, many of those state efforts are task forces led by appointed conservative business leaders and empowered only to issue recommendations. "There is a very real possibility that whatever recommendations come out of their state DOGE groups will actually be put in practice by legislatures. But they can't do it on their own," said Whitney Tucker, the director of state fiscal policy research for the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Most state budgets' biggest areas of spending are K-12 and higher education and health care — particularly programs like Medicaid, where costs are shared with the federal government and states face legal restrictions on the changes they can make to eligibility and coverage. Other major budget drivers include transportation, prisons and pensions. Unlike the federal government, which can operate at a deficit, states are already required to balance their budgets — which means, especially in Statehouses where Republicans control all levers of the government, the party has already implemented many of its fiscal priorities. Further steep cuts would quickly be felt in classrooms, by motorists and more. Still, most state DOGE initiatives aim to build on elements of the federal DOGE. In Florida and Iowa, it's tech: GOP governors say they'll use artificial intelligence to further identify ways to shrink state governments their party has long controlled. In Oklahoma, it's scrapping contracts. Gov. Kevin Stitt's Division of Government Efficiency launched a website where it is posting regular updates, such as hundreds of thousands of dollars per month saved by eliminating some cell phones and landlines, and $200,000 saved per year by firing the contractors that mowed the state's Capitol grounds and replacing them with automated mowers. And in Wisconsin — where power is split between Republican-controlled legislature and a Democratic governor — GOP lawmakers are focused on workplace matters like diversity initiatives and remote work in state and local government. One major difference between the federal and state efforts is speed. Musk's DOGE moved quickly to dramatically slash spending and remake the federal government — a chaotic campaign that's been riddled with inaccurate claims, seen some reductions quickly walked back and faced myriad legal challenges. State DOGE efforts, though, are off to much slower starts. In Iowa, Gov. Kim Reynolds created the DOGE Task Force on February 10, with that task force's initial meeting set to take place 60 days later. In New Hampshire, Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte created a Committee on Government Efficiency with her first executive order; that committee has so far met just twice. In Georgia, Texas and South Carolina, proposals to create DOGE-style efforts are still making their ways through the GOP-led legislatures. Kansas and Missouri have created online portals with DOGE branding for residents to submit ideas and feedback on government inefficiencies, but it's not clear that those portals have yet led to concrete action. The slow starts at Statehouses across the country come amid polls that reflect trepidation among Americans about DOGE and the Trump administration's spending cuts. With an uncertain economic outlook that could rapidly change the political landscape, it's too early to predict what will come of the state DOGE efforts. Their recommendations could end up "just being a laundry list of conservative ideas that they wanted to put in place in the states already," Tucker said. If voters sour on Musk and the federal DOGE, though, Tucker said it's possible that "a lot of these state DOGE groups will quietly fade back into state governments assessing what is efficient through their normal processes." Republican governors were eager to tap into DOGE's brand — but wanted to make clear they've been attempting to slash spending for years. "I like to say we were doing DOGE before DOGE was a thing," Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said in January as she launched an Iowa DOGE Committee made up of business leaders that will submit a report with recommendations within six months. "We've been DOGE-ing in Oklahoma before it was cool," Stitt, the Oklahoma governor, said on social media. "I say we were DOGE before DOGE was cool," Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a February new conference launching his own state-level DOGE. DeSantis said Florida's DOGE — in place for one year — will bring a new wrinkle to his cost-cutting efforts by using artificial intelligence. He said the task force will abolish 70 state boards and commissions, audit local governments and scrutinize state universities' spending, staffing and curriculum. "This is the DOGE-ing of our state university system, and I think it's going to be good for taxpayers, and it's ultimately going to be good for students as well," DeSantis said. Other ambitious Republicans are similarly trying to tie themselves to DOGE. Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who is widely seen as a likely 2026 gubernatorial contender, highlighted the state Senate's passage of a bill that would require state agencies to review all of their rules every four years and gauge the economic impact of those regulations with a simple email subject line: "Georgia does DOGE." The Texas Senate last week approved a measure that would establish a state office similar to the Musk-led federal DOGE. "President Trump's creation of the 'Department of Government Efficiency' inspired me to find ways Texas can save taxpayers and businesses money by cutting burdensome regulations," Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said in a statement. Wisconsin Assembly Republicans launched a Government Operations, Accountability and Transparency Committee — or "GOAT Committee," seizing on a Musk-inspired meme name for their effort. The panel's first hearing was focused on state agencies' remote work policies. Its GOP vice chair, meanwhile, demanded details from cities and counties about diversity policies, positions, grants and more — and when Democrats complained that he was overstepping, that vice chair, Rep. Shae Sortwell, wrote on social media: "Just because you don't like it and whine about it, doesn't mean I can't do it." "They're copying and pasting the substance of a meme of efficiency and fiscal responsibility," said Rep. Mike Bare, the top-ranking Democrat on the committee. "It just strikes me as blatantly contrary to our general 'Schoolhouse Rock!' understanding of how government works." Republicans, though, described an effort that is limited by the reality of a government split between a GOP legislature and Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. Rep. Amanda Nedweski, who chairs the Wisconsin Assembly's GOAT Committee, said the committee is acting within the legislature's oversight role. "We do not have the authority to bulldoze our way through state agencies wielding sledgehammers or scalpels," she said. Nedweski, criticizing the state's second-term governor, said the committee is "doing the tough homework and the heavy lifting that the state agencies should be doing themselves." She said the committee can identify ways to reduce regulations, eliminate redundancy and slash spending. But she acknowledged its limitations in a divided government, saying that Evers "needs to get a clue or step aside for a Republican governor if any real change is going to happen in Wisconsin."
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
GOP states go ‘DOGE-ing,' mimicking Musk's branding as they call attention to spending cuts
Republican governors and lawmakers in more than a dozen states are tapping into Elon Musk's brand, borrowing from his Department of Government Efficiency's approach — and in many cases, its name — to draw attention to their own bids to slash spending. The state efforts have been slower to start and smaller in scale — a reality that follows years of fiscal austerity in states where Republicans have long been in power, and where budgets are already required to be balanced. In most cases, governors and lawmakers have merely added new names, or launched new committees, to highlight reductions for which they've spent years claiming credit. Unlike the federal DOGE, many of those state efforts are task forces led by appointed conservative business leaders and empowered only to issue recommendations. 'There is a very real possibility that whatever recommendations come out of their state DOGE groups will actually be put in practice by legislatures. But they can't do it on their own,' said Whitney Tucker, the director of state fiscal policy research for the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Most state budgets' biggest areas of spending are K-12 and higher education and health care — particularly programs like Medicaid, where costs are shared with the federal government and states face legal restrictions on the changes they can make to eligibility and coverage. Other major budget drivers include transportation, prisons and pensions. Unlike the federal government, which can operate at a deficit, states are already required to balance their budgets — which means, especially in Statehouses where Republicans control all levers of the government, the party has already implemented many of its fiscal priorities. Further steep cuts would quickly be felt in classrooms, by motorists and more. Still, most state DOGE initiatives aim to build on elements of the federal DOGE. In Florida and Iowa, it's tech: GOP governors say they'll use artificial intelligence to further identify ways to shrink state governments their party has long controlled. In Oklahoma, it's scrapping contracts. Gov. Kevin Stitt's Division of Government Efficiency launched a website where it is posting regular updates, such as hundreds of thousands of dollars per month saved by eliminating some cell phones and landlines, and $200,000 saved per year by firing the contractors that mowed the state's Capitol grounds and replacing them with automated mowers. And in Wisconsin — where power is split between Republican-controlled legislature and a Democratic governor — GOP lawmakers are focused on workplace matters like diversity initiatives and remote work in state and local government. One major difference between the federal and state efforts is speed. Musk's DOGE moved quickly to dramatically slash spending and remake the federal government — a chaotic campaign that's been riddled with inaccurate claims, seen some reductions quickly walked back and faced myriad legal challenges. State DOGE efforts, though, are off to much slower starts. In Iowa, Gov. Kim Reynolds created the DOGE Task Force on February 10, with that task force's initial meeting set to take place 60 days later. In New Hampshire, Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte created a Committee on Government Efficiency with her first executive order; that committee has so far met just twice. In Georgia, Texas and South Carolina, proposals to create DOGE-style efforts are still making their ways through the GOP-led legislatures. Kansas and Missouri have created online portals with DOGE branding for residents to submit ideas and feedback on government inefficiencies, but it's not clear that those portals have yet led to concrete action. The slow starts at Statehouses across the country come amid polls that reflect trepidation among Americans about DOGE and the Trump administration's spending cuts. With an uncertain economic outlook that could rapidly change the political landscape, it's too early to predict what will come of the state DOGE efforts. Their recommendations could end up 'just being a laundry list of conservative ideas that they wanted to put in place in the states already,' Tucker said. If voters sour on Musk and the federal DOGE, though, Tucker said it's possible that 'a lot of these state DOGE groups will quietly fade back into state governments assessing what is efficient through their normal processes.' Republican governors were eager to tap into DOGE's brand — but wanted to make clear they've been attempting to slash spending for years. 'I like to say we were doing DOGE before DOGE was a thing,' Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said in January as she launched an Iowa DOGE Committee made up of business leaders that will submit a report with recommendations within six months. 'We've been DOGE-ing in Oklahoma before it was cool,' Stitt, the Oklahoma governor, said on social media. 'I say we were DOGE before DOGE was cool,' Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a February new conference launching his own state-level DOGE. DeSantis said Florida's DOGE — in place for one year — will bring a new wrinkle to his cost-cutting efforts by using artificial intelligence. He said the task force will abolish 70 state boards and commissions, audit local governments and scrutinize state universities' spending, staffing and curriculum. 'This is the DOGE-ing of our state university system, and I think it's going to be good for taxpayers, and it's ultimately going to be good for students as well,' DeSantis said. Other ambitious Republicans are similarly trying to tie themselves to DOGE. Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who is widely seen as a likely 2026 gubernatorial contender, highlighted the state Senate's passage of a bill that would require state agencies to review all of their rules every four years and gauge the economic impact of those regulations with a simple email subject line: 'Georgia does DOGE.' The Texas Senate last week approved a measure that would establish a state office similar to the Musk-led federal DOGE. 'President Trump's creation of the 'Department of Government Efficiency' inspired me to find ways Texas can save taxpayers and businesses money by cutting burdensome regulations,' Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said in a statement. Wisconsin Assembly Republicans launched a Government Operations, Accountability and Transparency Committee — or 'GOAT Committee,' seizing on a Musk-inspired meme name for their effort. The panel's first hearing was focused on state agencies' remote work policies. Its GOP vice chair, meanwhile, demanded details from cities and counties about diversity policies, positions, grants and more — and when Democrats complained that he was overstepping, that vice chair, Rep. Shae Sortwell, wrote on social media: 'Just because you don't like it and whine about it, doesn't mean I can't do it.' 'They're copying and pasting the substance of a meme of efficiency and fiscal responsibility,' said Rep. Mike Bare, the top-ranking Democrat on the committee. 'It just strikes me as blatantly contrary to our general 'Schoolhouse Rock!' understanding of how government works.' Republicans, though, described an effort that is limited by the reality of a government split between a GOP legislature and Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. Rep. Amanda Nedweski, who chairs the Wisconsin Assembly's GOAT Committee, said the committee is acting within the legislature's oversight role. 'We do not have the authority to bulldoze our way through state agencies wielding sledgehammers or scalpels,' she told CNN. Nedweski, criticizing the state's second-term governor, said the committee is 'doing the tough homework and the heavy lifting that the state agencies should be doing themselves.' She said the committee can identify ways to reduce regulations, eliminate redundancy and slash spending. But she acknowledged its limitations in a divided government, saying that Evers 'needs to get a clue or step aside for a Republican governor if any real change is going to happen in Wisconsin.'
CNN
08-04-2025
- Business
- CNN
GOP states go ‘DOGE-ing,' mimicking Musk's branding as they call attention to spending cuts
Republican governors and lawmakers in more than a dozen states are tapping into Elon Musk's brand, borrowing from his Department of Government Efficiency's approach — and in many cases, its name — to draw attention to their own bids to slash spending. The state efforts have been slower to start and smaller in scale — a reality that follows years of fiscal austerity in states where Republicans have long been in power, and where budgets are already required to be balanced. In most cases, governors and lawmakers have merely added new names, or launched new committees, to highlight reductions for which they've spent years claiming credit. Unlike the federal DOGE, many of those state efforts are task forces led by appointed conservative business leaders and empowered only to issue recommendations. 'There is a very real possibility that whatever recommendations come out of their state DOGE groups will actually be put in practice by legislatures. But they can't do it on their own,' said Whitney Tucker, the director of state fiscal policy research for the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Most state budgets' biggest areas of spending are K-12 and higher education and health care — particularly programs like Medicaid, where costs are shared with the federal government and states face legal restrictions on the changes they can make to eligibility and coverage. Other major budget drivers include transportation, prisons and pensions. Unlike the federal government, which can operate at a deficit, states are already required to balance their budgets — which means, especially in Statehouses where Republicans control all levers of the government, the party has already implemented many of its fiscal priorities. Further steep cuts would quickly be felt in classrooms, by motorists and more. Still, most state DOGE initiatives aim to build on elements of the federal DOGE. In Florida and Iowa, it's tech: GOP governors say they'll use artificial intelligence to further identify ways to shrink state governments their party has long controlled. In Oklahoma, it's scrapping contracts. Gov. Kevin Stitt's Division of Government Efficiency launched a website where it is posting regular updates, such as hundreds of thousands of dollars per month saved by eliminating some cell phones and landlines, and $200,000 saved per year by firing the contractors that mowed the state's Capitol grounds and replacing them with automated mowers. And in Wisconsin — where power is split between Republican-controlled legislature and a Democratic governor — GOP lawmakers are focused on workplace matters like diversity initiatives and remote work in state and local government. One major difference between the federal and state efforts is speed. Musk's DOGE moved quickly to dramatically slash spending and remake the federal government — a chaotic campaign that's been riddled with inaccurate claims, seen some reductions quickly walked back and faced myriad legal challenges. State DOGE efforts, though, are off to much slower starts. In Iowa, Gov. Kim Reynolds created the DOGE Task Force on February 10, with that task force's initial meeting set to take place 60 days later. In New Hampshire, Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte created a Committee on Government Efficiency with her first executive order; that committee has so far met just twice. In Georgia, Texas and South Carolina, proposals to create DOGE-style efforts are still making their ways through the GOP-led legislatures. Kansas and Missouri have created online portals with DOGE branding for residents to submit ideas and feedback on government inefficiencies, but it's not clear that those portals have yet led to concrete action. The slow starts at Statehouses across the country come amid polls that reflect trepidation among Americans about DOGE and the Trump administration's spending cuts. With an uncertain economic outlook that could rapidly change the political landscape, it's too early to predict what will come of the state DOGE efforts. Their recommendations could end up 'just being a laundry list of conservative ideas that they wanted to put in place in the states already,' Tucker said. If voters sour on Musk and the federal DOGE, though, Tucker said it's possible that 'a lot of these state DOGE groups will quietly fade back into state governments assessing what is efficient through their normal processes.' Republican governors were eager to tap into DOGE's brand — but wanted to make clear they've been attempting to slash spending for years. 'I like to say we were doing DOGE before DOGE was a thing,' Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said in January as she launched an Iowa DOGE Committee made up of business leaders that will submit a report with recommendations within six months. 'We've been DOGE-ing in Oklahoma before it was cool,' Stitt, the Oklahoma governor, said on social media. 'I say we were DOGE before DOGE was cool,' Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a February new conference launching his own state-level DOGE. DeSantis said Florida's DOGE — in place for one year — will bring a new wrinkle to his cost-cutting efforts by using artificial intelligence. He said the task force will abolish 70 state boards and commissions, audit local governments and scrutinize state universities' spending, staffing and curriculum. 'This is the DOGE-ing of our state university system, and I think it's going to be good for taxpayers, and it's ultimately going to be good for students as well,' DeSantis said. Other ambitious Republicans are similarly trying to tie themselves to DOGE. Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who is widely seen as a likely 2026 gubernatorial contender, highlighted the state Senate's passage of a bill that would require state agencies to review all of their rules every four years and gauge the economic impact of those regulations with a simple email subject line: 'Georgia does DOGE.' The Texas Senate last week approved a measure that would establish a state office similar to the Musk-led federal DOGE. 'President Trump's creation of the 'Department of Government Efficiency' inspired me to find ways Texas can save taxpayers and businesses money by cutting burdensome regulations,' Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said in a statement. Wisconsin Assembly Republicans launched a Government Operations, Accountability and Transparency Committee — or 'GOAT Committee,' seizing on a Musk-inspired meme name for their effort. The panel's first hearing was focused on state agencies' remote work policies. Its GOP vice chair, meanwhile, demanded details from cities and counties about diversity policies, positions, grants and more — and when Democrats complained that he was overstepping, that vice chair, Rep. Shae Sortwell, wrote on social media: 'Just because you don't like it and whine about it, doesn't mean I can't do it.' 'They're copying and pasting the substance of a meme of efficiency and fiscal responsibility,' said Rep. Mike Bare, the top-ranking Democrat on the committee. 'It just strikes me as blatantly contrary to our general 'Schoolhouse Rock!' understanding of how government works.' Republicans, though, described an effort that is limited by the reality of a government split between a GOP legislature and Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. Rep. Amanda Nedweski, who chairs the Wisconsin Assembly's GOAT Committee, said the committee is acting within the legislature's oversight role. 'We do not have the authority to bulldoze our way through state agencies wielding sledgehammers or scalpels,' she told CNN. Nedweski, criticizing the state's second-term governor, said the committee is 'doing the tough homework and the heavy lifting that the state agencies should be doing themselves.' She said the committee can identify ways to reduce regulations, eliminate redundancy and slash spending. But she acknowledged its limitations in a divided government, saying that Evers 'needs to get a clue or step aside for a Republican governor if any real change is going to happen in Wisconsin.'
CNN
08-04-2025
- Business
- CNN
GOP states go ‘DOGE-ing,' mimicking Musk's branding as they call attention to spending cuts
Republican governors and lawmakers in more than a dozen states are tapping into Elon Musk's brand, borrowing from his Department of Government Efficiency's approach — and in many cases, its name — to draw attention to their own bids to slash spending. The state efforts have been slower to start and smaller in scale — a reality that follows years of fiscal austerity in states where Republicans have long been in power, and where budgets are already required to be balanced. In most cases, governors and lawmakers have merely added new names, or launched new committees, to highlight reductions for which they've spent years claiming credit. Unlike the federal DOGE, many of those state efforts are task forces led by appointed conservative business leaders and empowered only to issue recommendations. 'There is a very real possibility that whatever recommendations come out of their state DOGE groups will actually be put in practice by legislatures. But they can't do it on their own,' said Whitney Tucker, the director of state fiscal policy research for the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Most state budgets' biggest areas of spending are K-12 and higher education and health care — particularly programs like Medicaid, where costs are shared with the federal government and states face legal restrictions on the changes they can make to eligibility and coverage. Other major budget drivers include transportation, prisons and pensions. Unlike the federal government, which can operate at a deficit, states are already required to balance their budgets — which means, especially in Statehouses where Republicans control all levers of the government, the party has already implemented many of its fiscal priorities. Further steep cuts would quickly be felt in classrooms, by motorists and more. Still, most state DOGE initiatives aim to build on elements of the federal DOGE. In Florida and Iowa, it's tech: GOP governors say they'll use artificial intelligence to further identify ways to shrink state governments their party has long controlled. In Oklahoma, it's scrapping contracts. Gov. Kevin Stitt's Division of Government Efficiency launched a website where it is posting regular updates, such as hundreds of thousands of dollars per month saved by eliminating some cell phones and landlines, and $200,000 saved per year by firing the contractors that mowed the state's Capitol grounds and replacing them with automated mowers. And in Wisconsin — where power is split between Republican-controlled legislature and a Democratic governor — GOP lawmakers are focused on workplace matters like diversity initiatives and remote work in state and local government. One major difference between the federal and state efforts is speed. Musk's DOGE moved quickly to dramatically slash spending and remake the federal government — a chaotic campaign that's been riddled with inaccurate claims, seen some reductions quickly walked back and faced myriad legal challenges. State DOGE efforts, though, are off to much slower starts. In Iowa, Gov. Kim Reynolds created the DOGE Task Force on February 10, with that task force's initial meeting set to take place 60 days later. In New Hampshire, Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte created a Committee on Government Efficiency with her first executive order; that committee has so far met just twice. In Georgia, Texas and South Carolina, proposals to create DOGE-style efforts are still making their ways through the GOP-led legislatures. Kansas and Missouri have created online portals with DOGE branding for residents to submit ideas and feedback on government inefficiencies, but it's not clear that those portals have yet led to concrete action. The slow starts at Statehouses across the country come amid polls that reflect trepidation among Americans about DOGE and the Trump administration's spending cuts. With an uncertain economic outlook that could rapidly change the political landscape, it's too early to predict what will come of the state DOGE efforts. Their recommendations could end up 'just being a laundry list of conservative ideas that they wanted to put in place in the states already,' Tucker said. If voters sour on Musk and the federal DOGE, though, Tucker said it's possible that 'a lot of these state DOGE groups will quietly fade back into state governments assessing what is efficient through their normal processes.' Republican governors were eager to tap into DOGE's brand — but wanted to make clear they've been attempting to slash spending for years. 'I like to say we were doing DOGE before DOGE was a thing,' Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said in January as she launched an Iowa DOGE Committee made up of business leaders that will submit a report with recommendations within six months. 'We've been DOGE-ing in Oklahoma before it was cool,' Stitt, the Oklahoma governor, said on social media. 'I say we were DOGE before DOGE was cool,' Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a February new conference launching his own state-level DOGE. DeSantis said Florida's DOGE — in place for one year — will bring a new wrinkle to his cost-cutting efforts by using artificial intelligence. He said the task force will abolish 70 state boards and commissions, audit local governments and scrutinize state universities' spending, staffing and curriculum. 'This is the DOGE-ing of our state university system, and I think it's going to be good for taxpayers, and it's ultimately going to be good for students as well,' DeSantis said. Other ambitious Republicans are similarly trying to tie themselves to DOGE. Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who is widely seen as a likely 2026 gubernatorial contender, highlighted the state Senate's passage of a bill that would require state agencies to review all of their rules every four years and gauge the economic impact of those regulations with a simple email subject line: 'Georgia does DOGE.' The Texas Senate last week approved a measure that would establish a state office similar to the Musk-led federal DOGE. 'President Trump's creation of the 'Department of Government Efficiency' inspired me to find ways Texas can save taxpayers and businesses money by cutting burdensome regulations,' Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said in a statement. Wisconsin Assembly Republicans launched a Government Operations, Accountability and Transparency Committee — or 'GOAT Committee,' seizing on a Musk-inspired meme name for their effort. The panel's first hearing was focused on state agencies' remote work policies. Its GOP vice chair, meanwhile, demanded details from cities and counties about diversity policies, positions, grants and more — and when Democrats complained that he was overstepping, that vice chair, Rep. Shae Sortwell, wrote on social media: 'Just because you don't like it and whine about it, doesn't mean I can't do it.' 'They're copying and pasting the substance of a meme of efficiency and fiscal responsibility,' said Rep. Mike Bare, the top-ranking Democrat on the committee. 'It just strikes me as blatantly contrary to our general 'Schoolhouse Rock!' understanding of how government works.' Republicans, though, described an effort that is limited by the reality of a government split between a GOP legislature and Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. Rep. Amanda Nedweski, who chairs the Wisconsin Assembly's GOAT Committee, said the committee is acting within the legislature's oversight role. 'We do not have the authority to bulldoze our way through state agencies wielding sledgehammers or scalpels,' she told CNN. Nedweski, criticizing the state's second-term governor, said the committee is 'doing the tough homework and the heavy lifting that the state agencies should be doing themselves.' She said the committee can identify ways to reduce regulations, eliminate redundancy and slash spending. But she acknowledged its limitations in a divided government, saying that Evers 'needs to get a clue or step aside for a Republican governor if any real change is going to happen in Wisconsin.'
