As state legislators grapple with solutions to California's budget crisis, Governor Schwarzenegger's 2004 California Performance Review (CPR) is once again in the news. Four years ago, the CBP took a detailed look at this 2,500-plus page report and its more than 1,000 recommendations in Soup to Nuts: An Analysis of Selected Recommendations of the California Performance Review.

The analysis found that some of the proposals were modest and made sense, while others required evaluation, modification, or considerable scrutiny. Still others had already been considered and rejected in prior budget and policy debates.

While the CPR report claimed it would save the state $32.2 billion over a five-year period if its recommendations were implemented, the CBP's analysis suggests this estimate is substantially overstated, and not all of the savings would accrue to the state budget.

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