The Californer - California: Governor Newsom advances efficiency efforts, announces five new projects completed to improve state government

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Nov 21, 2025

Governor Newsom advances efficiency efforts, announces five new projects completed to improve state government

California Breakthrough group helps the state deliver new efficiency results

What you need to know: Governor Newsom today announced five new projects the state is delivering to make California's government better — as a result of the Governor's work to identify efficiency opportunities and develop new solutions.

SAN FRANCISCO – Governor Newsom's California Breakthrough advisory group — a preeminent group of technology and corporate executives — met Tuesday with the Governor to present new solutions to help advance efficiency and stronger services in state government. Along with the meeting, the Governor also announced five new projects resulting from this effort. Through these projects and others, California is delivering measurable results across state operations — cutting costs and time, modernizing systems, and improving services for California residents.

We're going to keep making government better, faster, and more responsive for Californians. California is home to the most innovative talent — people who wake up every day thinking about how to solve big problems, and we're tapping that spirit to modernize how government serves you.

In just a few months since announcing the California Breakthrough Project, we've already identified real ways to save time and money, cut through the nonsense, and made the experience of dealing with state government simpler and more user-friendly. That's the mission: government that works for you, not the other way around.

Governor Gavin Newsom

An all-hands solution to government efficiency

Tuesday at SV Angel headquarters in San Francisco, Governor Newsom met with the California Breakthrough Group. The group, which first met on June 6, includes Asheesh Birla (Investor), Ron Conway (Founder, SV Angel), Chris Larsen (Executive Chair, Ripple), Jeff Lawson (Co-founder and former CEO, Twilio), Jen Pahlka (author of Recoding America), Jason Wheeler (former CFO of Tesla), Dani Dudeck (Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, Instacart), and leaders from companies including AME Cloud Ventures, Anduril, Coinbase, Instacart, and Snap Inc. At today's event, the group welcomed three new members: Andre Haddad (CEO of Turo), Sam Rodriques (CEO of FutureHouse and Edison Scientific), and Scopely.

Earlier this year, the Governor signed an executive order directing every state agency to engage the entire state workforce in efforts to identify and implement novel efficiency measures. The order also created a new Governor's Innovation Fellows Program, state staff with a mission of collaborating to address unique statewide challenges through innovative ideas. At the meeting, the Breakthrough Members provided the Governor with an update on the work underway, including their support of the Innovation Fellows. The Fellows, with assistance from the Office of Data and Innovation (ODI) and UC Berkeley Goldman School of Public Policy, are working with a group on public impact initiatives and state operations improvements.

Efficient, effective, engaged

From hiring practices to water management, here are the latest wins that demonstrate how the state, alongside the California Breakthrough advisory group, is building a more efficient, effective, and engaged government for you:

#1 Fast-tracking state hiring

California has streamlined its hiring process and made applying for and moving between state jobs easier — by merging 67 generalist job titles, covering more than 32,000 positions, into just eight classifications. This will make it much easier for applicants to find the right role and for current employees to advance their careers and avoid being stuck in narrow job categories. Additionally, changes to peace officer job requirements will open opportunities across 90 classifications, impacting over 26,000 positions. This simplification helps applicants more easily find the right roles while greatly reducing the number of civil service exams applicants need to complete. In an early pilot, the state has also reduced application review time by nearly 87 percent while maintaining the state's merit-based hiring practices.

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#2 Transparent Water Rights Records

A new system from the State Water Resources Control Board, the California Water Accounting, Tracking, and Reporting System (CalWATRS), replaces an outdated system that's almost 20 years old. It simplifies the reporting process and reduces errors, and is part of ongoing work to digitize paper water rights records—some well over 100 years old—to make information readily available to the public for the first time through an interactive map. The new system also helps state officials take action when there is drought. For the first time, it makes the state's 40,000 water rights records easily accessible to the public, while streamlining reporting for water rights holders.

#3 Saving millions through smarter tech contracts
The California Department of Technology (CDT) teamed up with the Employment Development Department (EDD) to consolidate multiple Salesforce license agreements into a single enterprise contract. This strategic move improved the state's negotiating power—saving EDD $2.3 million, or 10%, on Salesforce costs alone. CDT also successfully negotiated a 12.4% discount under the Cisco CaliONE Statewide Agreement, benefiting eight departments. This strategic consolidation resulted in over $12 million in savings on hardware purchases for the State of California.

#4 Reducing printing costs
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) combed through traditional printing activities to identify publications and items that no longer needed to be published in paper form or could be distributed digitally. CDCR has ceased printing entire regulatory packages and only prints required notices, moved printed workbooks online, and now prints required notices and visitor passes in-house for a total savings of more than $563,000.

#5 Expanding access to nature with the Golden Bear Pass

California continues to step up and support our residents. The revamped Golden Bear Pass Program now offers free vehicle day-use entry to over 200 state parks for Californians on public assistance, with participation surging from a few thousand to over 108,000 passes issued in just three years.

Leading in government efficiency

Governor Newsom has made efficiency a top priority since the start of his Administration. In 2019, the Governor established the Office of Data Innovation, a group of technology experts dedicated to supporting other state agencies, departments, and employees to utilize data, technology, and principles of human-centered design common in the private sector to improve the delivery of services to Californians.

Prioritizing efficiency and innovation — with appropriate safeguards protecting privacy, safety, and civil liberties — Governor Newsom has:

Overhauled and modernized the Department of Motor Vehicles to reduce wait times, expand online services, and improve customer service.
Implemented new cutting-edge technologies to fight wildfires, including cameras across the state and data modeling to predict where wildfires might occur, deployment of drones, and improved incident reporting.
Issued an executive order directing state agencies to implement Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) into state government operations and help support the work of front-line employees.
Expedited the procurement process through an innovative Request for Innovative Ideas (RFI2), which allows state agencies to quickly test technology through safe and secure environments. Through this expedited process, California has already announced three important contracts, using GenAI to reduce highway congestion, improve traffic safety, and enhance customer service.

Improving government services through engagement

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Earlier this year, Governor Newsom launched the first-of-its-kind digital platform that empowers Californians to use a virtual town hall setting to engage and share insights about a particular topic. The pilot project involved people impacted by the Los Angeles wildfires. They aligned on a rebuilding and recovery process through a six-month conversation with 2,500 comments from Californians.

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