‘Nobody’s accountable in Sacramento anymore. We blow billions and shrug.’ – State Watchdog Fires Back as EDD Scandal Grows
California has done it again. As hard-working Americans tighten belts, the state’s infamously bloated bureaucracy has torched millions on technology that never left a storage closet. The Employment Development Department (EDD)-already mired in years of fraud and mismanagement-has now been exposed by state auditors for a $4.6 million boondoggle: thousands of cellphones purchased, most never even activated, let alone used by employees. Is there any limit to California’s wasteful ways?
Taxpayers should be outraged. This latest audit bombshell comes after years of mounting evidence that California’s government, led by entrenched leftist leadership, is hopelessly out of touch with accountability and fiscal restraint. Even as unemployment hit historic highs during the pandemic, Sacramento managed to burn your money on phone plans it never bothered to check-or cancel.
And it gets worse: The EDD’s spending spree isn’t just a minor slip. The agency acquired over 7,200 mobile devices and wireless hotspots by late 2020, enrolling in thousands of redundant service contracts, all under the guise of coping with a pandemic-fueled unemployment surge. The cellphones-meant for newly minted call center workers-sat dormant as bills racked up month after month. Add this to the EDD’s previous $31 billion fraud disaster and you have a government agency run amok.
‘This is what happens when bureaucrats answer to nobody. Your tax dollars are treated like Monopoly money.’ – Rep. Matt Hamilton (R-CA) on X, Friday night
Dead Phones, Live Bills: Inside the EDD Cellphone Fiasco
So, how does a state agency fritter away $4.6 million in under five years with next to nothing to show for it? Let’s dig in.
The damning audit shows EDD’s tech splurge was breathtaking in its incompetence and scale. During the pandemic, unemployment claims exploded-EDD processed 17 million claims between March and November 2020-so it hired nearly 3,900 call reps and rushed to provide remote work tools. But auditors found that by December 2020, the agency had acquired 7,224 devices, and soon after, more than half these cellphones went untouched for at least two years. One in four? Gathering dust for three years or longer.
And it gets even more absurd. In one now-notorious storage room, investigators literally stumbled upon 420 boxed up, unassigned cellphones-many still basic flip phones-sitting unused for years on end. Yet every month, EDD kept shoveling public money to Verizon and other carriers to keep the lines ‘active.’ Was nobody watching the store?
Here’s the kicker: While EDD forked out for 5,097 mobile lines by April 2025, the agency only employed 1,787 staffers in its unemployment hotline. That’s nearly three service plans for every person actually answering calls! Any small business owner would’ve noticed this insanity and pulled the plug immediately, but not in progressive Sacramento-where virtue signals beat basic math every time.
‘EDD management claimed they didn’t know. But monthly invoices showed exactly what was (not) being used. There’s no excuse for this level of negligence.’ – California State Auditor’s Report, 2025
Culture of Waste: How California Became a National Punchline for Money Mismanagement
Any honest taxpayer reading this has to wonder: Is anyone ever held responsible for such reckless spending? History tells us-at least in Democrat-dominated California-almost never.
This isn’t just about phones. California’s own auditor describes ‘a pattern of improper activities across agencies,’ with EDD’s waste being only the biggest. The Air Resources Board was caught massively overpaying a retiring staffer by $171,000. The Department of Veterans Affairs? It failed to report hundreds of thousands in taxable employee housing perks. But EDD remains in the crosshairs-thanks to its long history of ‘losing’ your money, or stuffing it into scams and fraud by the bagful.
Just last year, the EDD acknowledged up to $31 billion lost to fraudulent unemployment claims, some made under names like ‘Poopy Britches.’ Billions vanished; only $1 billion recovered. How would your small business survive a tenth of this sloppiness? The state’s answer: Bigger budgets and more bureaucracy-never real reform, and certainly no refunds for taxpayers. Little wonder conservative lawmakers are demanding deeper investigations and full criminal probes into bureaucratic abuse.
‘It is no secret: waste and corruption have become a way of life for big government in this state. The so-called progressive model is gutting California’s future.’ – Sen. Rick Andersen, GOP Budget Committee, Saturday morning Facebook Live
Time’s Up? Californians Demand Accountability-And Republican Audits Loom Ahead
Of course, EDD brass now claims they are finally cracking down-just as the audit landed and the headlines turned toxic. The agency trumpets a new policy to terminate service for any unused device beyond 90 days, and managers have reportedly begun pulling the plug on dormant lines. It’s too little, too late for most taxpayers. Conservatives are demanding more than retroactive fixes or face-saving press releases.
GOP state senators have already promised aggressive follow-up audits, with one calling this just ‘the tip of the spear’ when it comes to wasted resources in blue-state California. With another round of elections coming in 2026 and President Trump openly slamming Democrats for ‘financial vandalism,’ accountability could be on the ballot in a big way.
Meanwhile, on social media and talk radio, the backlash is fierce. Outraged Californians posted screenshots of audits demanding investigations and prosecutions. Many are calling for the abolishment or wholesale overhaul of EDD, with taxpayer watchdogs warning: ‘If Sacramento can burn $4.6 million on phones, what else is being wasted right under our noses?’
‘We need a culture change in California-root and branch. Not one dime more until there’s real oversight.’ – @CAConservatives, Saturday night tweet
Bottom line: This isn’t just about cellphones. It’s about a state government’s stunning disregard for fiscal responsibility. Republicans are holding the line-and voters nationwide would do well to watch California’s cautionary tale as the battle for America’s future, and its wallet, heats up.
