By C.B.
City Staff Cartoon
CBcartoons
August 24, 2022, 11:26 am
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most tax $ are used to fund bloated gov’t worker pensions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_br3uMudQSM
YouTube – the favored source for disinformation on just about any topic.
2:30pm – I don’t know……. YouTube has some extremely accurate and independently verified studies on the lizard people and flat earth theory.
When evaluating claims like this, you should consider the source, which is neither transparent, nor California.
“Transparent California” is just one of the many names used by the tax-exempt “free-market think tank” Nevada Policy Research Institute (NPRI). NPRI refuses to divulge its own funding sources, stating, “NPRI respects the privacy of our donors, which includes the amount of a donor’s gift”.
NPRI’s primary funding source, as determined by The Conservative Transparency Project, is Donors Capital Fund, a dark-money source of funding for conservative groups. Its donors also include The Cato Institute, co-founded by the Koch brothers, and organizations affiliated with the climate change denial movement.
NPRI spends 75% of its revenue on six-figure salaries and benefits. Its goal is to undermine support for employee unions nationwide, thereby decreasing salaries and increasing corporate profits.
12:28 You should apply that same level of scrutiny to the climate apocalypse claims. And since you had to drag political parties into this, dark liberal money outspends dark conservative money more than 2 – 1. https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2021/03/one-billion-dark-money-2020-electioncycle/
VOICE – why do you ALWAYS have to bring politics into the comments, while in the same breath chastising others for doing it? Like a vulture sitting on a barn waiting for someone to say ANYTHING so you can swoop in and make it political, whether politics were raised or not.
Um, whataboutism again. Trying to distract and deflect.
Based on casual observation, studies and surveys sole purpose is to provide .gov cover regarding future litigation. Personally, I’ve given up spending any mental energy concerning ineffective and bloated government. When were taxes ever reduced to provide for smaller and/or more efficient government services?
First some history: there’s been discussion about turning State Street into a pedestrian corridor for decades. Despite adequate public parking, the enjoyment of State Street started to fade as non-resident landlords raised rents and increasing homeless folks occupied the space. Restaurants and merchants facing the pandemic in 2020 were going to shutter. Then, after a relatively short planning period, a few blocks of downtown State Street became pedestrian. The experiment began for better or worse. Thousands of community members gave input via an AIA survey about what they’d like to see in the pedestrian zone. Now I read about another bunch of public input is going to be sought. Enough with surveys and consultants. This isn’t rocket science. Fix the current problems on State Street: bands of young teens on ebikes riding recklessly, merchants who took over so much of the street by their parklets that a fire engine can’t pass through, remove the homeless from the thresholds of businesses. Let the pedestrian block experiment on State Street continue. Visit Carmel by the Sea, Copenhagen Drive in Solvang, and San Diego’s Gaslight District. Santa Barbara’s State Street is distinctive in its own right.
A picture speaks a thousand words.
Not saying the youtube video linked was good or bad, but you can google the mayor of San Jose ( who was considered to be a progressive democrat at the time) ruminating that in the near future, San Jose City Hall would be able to employ only one person and that person would be in charge of signing and mailing the pension checks to former public employees.
Now San Jose has recovered from that and settle with the public employee unions, but the mayor bravely made his point
I think we all agree here, and that says something – we’re giving away our tax dollars far too readily to our city (county? state? federal?) government.
The question of: how many public service providers can we afford at current pay, overtime and benefits? is good conversation to have whether you are a progressive Democrat or a fiscal conservative.
Whether we want more people serving us, or less, it is important to know how much each person actually costs to one tax payer.
Looks to me like taxes could be a heck of a lot lower and the average Santa Barbara resident wouldn’t see any difference in what the city gets done.
Lack of trust in the government process is well founded, especially in this town. Lot of money spent cutting bait instead of actually fishing.
I at first thought that there should be many more employees around that table, but then I realized that four of them were on vacation.
Because at any point in time, 30% of City employees are on vacation, taking a break, appointment at the doctor, dentist, or psychiatrist, retraining for a new position, or, as in the case of the current City Attorney, taking a required and paid leave of absence.
I agree. My “How would you know” post was meant to say that there was no difference in performance when they are present vs absent.
Accurate depiction.
This $2,500,000 to be didn’t housing 40 homeless over 100 days.
Ask how much goes towards administration expenses.
Spot on. That’s what you get when there’s an unlimited supply of other peoples money to waste.
Where are the tax cutting candidates?
It’s like a business with no incentive to deliver the agreed upon services because their customers (tax payers) pay them under threat of incarceration.
Taxpayers pay for all city employees which includes city staff the Mayor, and his gang of 6 (city council), and none of them can’t put their brains together to figure out what is best for the city of SB? So the taxpayers have to pay extra $$$$$$$$ to these mercenary consultants for their opinions on what is best for the city of SB. City council might as well hire the Magnificent 7.
For those of you still supportive of the efforts by Santa Barbara/Goleta/SB County government agencies, you clearly have never gone through the approval process for a modest residential remodel. Never will you experience a slower, more bureaucratic, and petty group than the local planners. You’ll come away thinking the DMV is the most efficient organization you’ve ever dealt with for .gov services.
And yet the City (really meaning the top administrators) has allowed its employees to violate multiple zoning and nuisance laws for a major business right here in Paradise. Very tough on law-abiding citizens, but “Let’s look the other way” for an illegal business owner. And there is no law enforcement entity to report that type of corruption to. I have tried everything.
Government, especially local government, has become insulated from responsibilities to the people and there is no good way to correct that. Maybe the people should contract with a consultant to figure that one out.
It SHOULD read “We’ve spent … etc, etc. TO FIND A $1.7 mil consultant.”
City Manager: “The Planning Director will now present the next item on the agenda.”
Planning Director: “Thank you, I will now turn this over to our Advance Planning Manager.”
Advance Planning Manager: “Thank you, I would like to introduce our Senior Associate Planner who is managing this project.”
Senior Associate Planner: “Thank you, the presentation will now be made by our Special Consultant.”