Outsourcing California Government Jobs

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Outsourcing California Government Jobs: What Responsibility does the Government have towards its Citizens?

If you called the California food-stamps office, your call was directed to India, where a person living in that country, whose salary was paid with money out of the treasury of the state of California, would have assisted you with any questions you had regarding your food stamps (also funded for by American and California taxpayers). If you had a question regarding California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids benefits (CALWORKs, California’s welfare), and could only speak Spanish, then your call would redirected to an operator in Tijuana. Sound unusual? Some legislators and residents of California thought so too.

Outsourcing, the practice of transferring certain job functions to companies whose employees perform them for less money overseas, is not something that only happens in the corporate world. Following in the footsteps of corporate outsourcing, some state governments, including the state of California, are also beginning to outsource state-funded projects, departments, and services.

This paper shows how California is facing an aggressive policy battle to determine how best to address outsourcing and state government contracts/jobs. The legislators of the state question whether outsourcing is the best choice to sustain and improve California’s economy, while considering the core values of their respective political parties the influences from partisan politics and special interests. Partisan politics have led to a deadly misstep for legislators because of the need to appease the agenda of their respective parties (which could possibly override the considerations that need to be made in re...

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...tember 2004.

Schoenberger, Karl. “State Governments Offshore information technology jobs, study finds.” The San Jose Mercury News. 15 July 2004, Online. Lexis Nexis Academic. 23 September 2004.

Savas, E.S. Privatization and Public-Private Partnerships. New York: Chatham House. 2000.

“Senate Hold Joint Hearing on Outsourcing of Jobs”: This Week in Sacramento. Online Newsletter. 5 December 2004.

http://www.caiia.com/Norwood_3-12-04.htm

“Stolen Jobs? Offshoring. (Does offshoring steal jobs?).” The Economist 369 (2003): 2 pages.

Weintraub, Daniel. “Outsourcing is Good for America…and California”. The Sacramento Bee. 13 July 2004. Google Search. 5 December 2004

“US Chamber of Commerce Chief Endorses Offshoring”. InformationWeek Online Magazine. 5 December 2004.

http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=22103240

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