I’m Not a Member of the Old Guard

Feel the burn of your taxes going up and up and up? I don’t endorse more taxes without every expenditure posted online for all to see. My competitor has all the endorsement she could ask for…from those who in control. Your taxes are being poorly managed, manipulated and wasted. The more you pay the less you get out of your taxes.  We need to create ordinances that require every government agency in the county to post the budget, expenses and every single receipt for public viewing online. We need to know who gets the money, from what sources the money comes from and exactly how much was spent. We need to come up with a way to eliminate ways to hide expenditures and nepotism…this will eliminate waste! 

What have these well-connected politicians (that all endorse each other) done make sure your tax dollars are spent with transparency and efficiently? Not much. It’s a “good ol boys club “and I’m not a member. I don’t need their endorsements I just need your votes to rid us of them. We have no room in Marin for segregation in schools and manipulation of tax dollars. We need every penny accounted for and posted in plain view online!

Did you know the Mill Valley School district is spending tens of thousands of dollars doing studies and assessments to try and convince you to take on 140M in bonds to build a new middle school and replace a perfectly good school? Has anyone done the calculations on what that will cost each parcel over the payment period for 140m in bonds? It is a lot!! Who will be the contractors, the architects and bond issuers who make the money…And who knows them? See my point? What is the motivation to build a new school in the same location near a rising sea level? They want to build a new school because some of the rooms are small and the HVAC systems need replacing (like throwing out the baby with the bathwater). Cutting programming in the school district to the children, but spending untold amounts of money on architects and studies to encumber you with more bonds and taxes. Spending money on lavish trips to resorts and expensive restaurants, but cutting programming from the children. 

I believe this lack of expenditure transparency and potential for nepotism is systemic throughout all agencies in Marin and I have a few ideas about how to make sure every citizen can see where every tax dollar is spent. The agencies post online budgets with line items for sure, but it’s what is in the line items you can’t see.  Those online financial disclosures are the equivalent of looking at a building you might want to buy, but not being allowed to see the inside, or do an inspection. If we can reduce the amount of waste by making every expenditure available to public viewing and forcing publicly funded administrations and elected officials to divulge any relationships they have with potential contractors, venders and service providers we can knock waste down to near zero.