HEALTH and HUMAN SERVICES
One of my favorite sayings is: “I do not mind feeding the hungry. I object to spending 80% of the money on administration. I want to spend 80% on food.” Every department in government suffers from the same problem; too much spent on administration and benefits. Our reforms to Health and Human Services will increase the amount and quality of services received by the taxpayer.
Orange County spends roughly $118,541,000 on Health and Human Services. The vast majority of those costs are payroll and benefits. There are many communities that run Health and Human Services partially or wholly through the efforts of volunteer and civic organizations. We recommend wherever and whenever possible to shift the management of Health and Human Services to non-profits. In addition to lowering the cost to the taxpayer, these groups have a passion for helping and resources to managerial talent the public sector cannot afford.
The other method to achieve better taxpayer service and lower government overhead is to outsource or privatize certain government enterprises. It has been proven time and again that the private sector can provide services for 10-40% less than the public sector. Departments like Mosquito Control can be bid out and those services can be secured for less.
We can and should spend every dollar on Health and Human Services as wisely as possible. The goal should be to provide the taxpayers with the most services, reduce overhead, and lesson the burden on our economy
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