by Jeff Boone
Disclaimer: Opinions are those of the writer and do not reflect those of The Vanguard or its Editorial Staff. The Vanguard does not endorse political candidates and is committed to publishing all public opinions and maintaining an open forum subject to guidelines related to decency and tone, not content.
The general root cause problems with Davis City budget are three.
- Overspending on city employees relative to the general job market for like professional qualifications. Many of these employees are captured by employee unions and associations that contribute to city council member campaigns. There has been a clear history of quid-pro-quo once these candidates are elected.
- Poor fiscal management by the city council and city management that have resulted in overspending on frivolity and under-spending on real needs. Evidence of mismanagement including audit-reported failure to comply with simple accounting principles and best-practices.
- Poor city leadership to overcome citizen rejection of almost every peripheral development project caused by a minority of well-entrenched, home value-protecting, NIMBY residents… thus resulting in a situation where Davis, a city with a real population of 80,000 when UCD is in session, has the lowest number of firms, and the lowest per capita sales revenue of any comparable CA city by an order of magnitude… and an inadequate supply of housing that has caused massive housing inflation for Davis and the surrounding region.
Measure Q is a bailout for these things. This is just like the federal government bailing out the troubled big banks and corporations during the Great Recession. And like that bailout, this Measure Q bailout, will only serve to perpetuate the very root cause problems that resulted in the demand for yet another bailout.
Bail them out this time, and they will be back again and again and again for more bailout in the future. Because nothing in their plan for this added revenue from a sales tax increase includes fixing what is broken.
