California’s Unfinished Business | Helping lawmakers hold themselves accountable

Californians pay the state auditor to identify problems in state government and recommend solutions, including changes to state law. State agencies are required to publicly report when they fail to implement those recommendations. Lawmakers are not.

A CBS News California investigation found lawmakers enacted just one out of every four audit recommendations directed to them. The result: tens of billions of dollars lost, wasted, or mismanaged — and ongoing public safety concerns.

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In 2022, the newly appointed state auditor stopped issuing the annual reports that summarized outstanding legislative recommendations.

Nearly a third of the Legislature is new this session, and many outstanding recommendations were issued before they took office.

In an effort to help state lawmakers hold themselves accountable, CBS News California compiled a decade of legislative audit recommendations into a first-of-its-kind Audit Accountability Tracker — detailing outstanding audit recommendations, related bills introduced, bills that quietly died, and bills vetoed by the governor.

This tracker serves as a roadmap — for lawmakers to act, and for Californians to hold them accountable.