Here's How Much Bureaucratic Waste Costs CA Taxpayers Each Year

Dmitri Bolt | May 28, 2026 5:30 PM

A new report out of California from Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton claims that the state’s bureaucracy and excessive red tape are costing each household more than $55,000 annually, amounting to nearly $1 trillion statewide.

Hilton revealed that the number is more than double the financial burden of any other state as he vowed to put the state's regulatory structure "into the wood chipper," and bring business back to the Golden State.

🚨NEW: Our second Bloat Report by CAL DOGE:

- Regulations cost California $745 BILLION a year
- $55,000 for every household
- More than double the burden of any other state

As governor I will put our bloated nanny state bureaucracy in the wood chipper. We'll overtake GERMANY to… pic.twitter.com/IKVPlOxNL6
— Steve Hilton (@SteveHiltonx) May 28, 2026

"I'm going to be putting the bloated nanny state bureaucracy in Sacramento into the wood chipper. We estimate that the actual impact of all this bloat in our government is $745 billion, nearly a trillion dollars, just from all this red tape and bureaucracy," Hilton revealed. "The actual cost per household when you add it up, $55,000."

"If you look at the comparison between California and the states where businesses are moving to, Texas, Tennessee, and Florida, all these other states it's less than half of the restrictions. So the very minimum, we've got to cut the bloat in Sacramento by at least 50 percent," he said. "We're now the state with the highest poverty rate in the country, the highest unemployment rate, the highest cost of living, 50th out of 50 states for business climate. Bloat and bureaucracy they're a huge part of that. So we're never going to achieve our goals unless we cut it back."