California Budget Transparency: The Double Standard in State Contracting
If you’ve ever sold a home in California, you know the drill. You don’t just “sell” a house—you participate in a massive, multi-layered disclosure process designed to protect the buyer at every turn.
I remember it vividly from my years as a broker. We had the statewide Transfer Disclosure Statement (TDS) and the Natural Hazard Disclosure (NHD). We were required to disclose everything from earthquake fault zones and flood hazards to whether a death occurred on the property within the last three years. As agents, we had our own visual disclosure duties, tasked with a “reasonable, competent, and diligent” inspection to ensure we weren’t hiding a single thing that might affect the value or desirability of that property.
If we missed a detail? We could be sued. If we were negligent? We could be fined. The state’s position was clear: The buyer has a right to know exactly what they are getting into.
California Budget Transparency
But When It Comes to the State’s Budget…
It’s fascinating—and frankly, frustrating—to watch the state of California turn around and operate by an entirely different set of rules when it comes to its own spending.
Recent investigations have shed light on a practice that would make any real estate agent’s head spin: the use of “no-bid” contracts buried deep within massive state budget bills. We’re talking about over $1 billion in appropriations in the 2026 budget alone, all handled through exemptions that bypass the competitive bidding process and public oversight.
Transparency for Thee, But Not for Me
In real estate, we call it “material disclosure.” If a broker knowingly conceals a fact that affects a property’s value, it’s a major breach of fiduciary duty. Yet, when the state allocates millions in taxpayer funds, they are using “budget trailer bills” to waive the very transparency they demand of private citizens.
These contracts often don’t appear in public databases. They don’t go through the Department of General Services’ watchdog review. Instead, they are hidden in plain sight, tucked into an 800+ page budget document that is negotiated behind closed doors.
The Question of Accountability
As a former broker, I find this 180-degree shift in standard to be completely off-kilter.
Where is the “Transfer Disclosure” for these contracts? Why doesn’t the state have to list who is receiving these funds, why they were chosen, and what their connection is to government officials?
Why the “Emergency” Loophole? Many of these programs—like diaper distribution—are not sudden emergencies, yet they are labeled as such to avoid the competitive bidding laws that every other business in the state has to follow.
The Vicious Circle: When you have a system where large, no-bid contracts are awarded to organizations that may later contribute to political campaigns, it creates a cycle that the public is forced to pay to uncover through legal resources and investigative journalism.
A Call for Common Sense
It shouldn’t require a team of lawyers and months of public records requests to see where a billion dollars of taxpayer money is going.
If the state wants to act as a partner in these initiatives, it should lead by example. We need simple, common-sense transparency: every budget line item for a no-bid contract should be required to list the proposer, the exact purpose, and the justification—in plain language—right there in the budget.
If California can demand 10+ pages of disclosures from a seller for a single home, surely the state can provide a few pages of transparency for a billion dollars of our money.
California Budget Transparency
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