Transparent California

A recent interview of our Director of Research done by Philip Stemler, a great parent activist in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District - NMUSD school district.

Can you imagine the revolution we'd see in quality of K12 education if we put our superintendents on a bonus plan that gave them a significant bump if they actually improved education?

But that's not what our education system is designed to do, right? It's all about making sure the adults are taken care of, not the kids...

"Without data, you're just another guy with an opinion" Transparent California's Director of Research, Todd Maddison, on shining a light on school spending.

Imagine that. The City of San Diego's money shortfall is NOT driven by a lack of tax revenue, but massively wasteful overspending.

Who could possibly have guessed that?

"The association’s analysis found that the city has been overprojecting its revenue since 2020, and they have a $1 billion backlog of deferred maintenance and $7.8 billion in projected infrastructure spending.

“That money just doesn’t exist, or not all of it anyway,” Kersey said.

He added that city staffing has grown four times faster than the city’s population, with a focus on middle management positions."

Thanks to Mark Kersey and the San Diego County Taxpayers Association for digging into this and proving something that I think should be pretty much obvious to everyone.

And it is, to people who know the data on Transparent California. Which is probably the exact same thing for your own city, county, school district, or public agency. Most of which prioritize "high paying jobs for themselves and their friends" over providing services to residents.

We should be DEMANDING our government make cuts, not complaining when that happens.

‘Self-inflicted wounds’: Independent budget review shows city’s staffing has grown 4x faster than population The City of San Diego is facing a $120 million budget shortfall, leading to potential layoffs, cuts to programs, and fee increases, according to a new non-partisan report from the San Diego County Tax...