Maybe watch dogging House Bills and Senate Bills is your thing, not watch dogging a taxing district or pension fund or retiree healthcare fund.

Watch dog something.

You can just elect politicians and expect them to do all the work if there is not an effective special interest group working behind the scenes.

The taxpayers need a special interest group organization.

Another group that has not been mentioned for awhile is Taxpayers United of America.

They are on the side of taxpayer watchdogs also.

But Taxpayers United of America needs your help too.

Ask not what your taxing district or state or politician or non profit can do for you, but what you can do for yourself.

Do some actual work by watchdogging a taxing district, state agency, retiree pension fund, retiree healthcare fund, House Bills or Senate Bills, something.

A computer with web browser and spreadsheet is about all you need.

You will be surprised how little people know once you start watchdogging.

You will talk to someone and explain maybe 1/50th or 1/100th of what you know, and they will say, how do you know all that?

That’s because the press, politicians, taxing districts, public sector unions, public sector employees, and everyone else hasn’t been telling them.

Those people hate when that’s said, but it’s the truth.

Not saying I could do a better job than them, it’s just the way it is.

Don’t rely on them.

Actually, a lot of them need your help.

Rely on yourself.

Help yourself and the good guys.

Can we create a template on this site, with standardized format agreed to in advance, whereby we create the spreadsheet with blank info fields?

Contributors could fill in the blanks but be required to cite sources ( like, MCCD 2014 Bond Issue Official statement, page xx, e.g.)? Once two distinct ‘validators’ have verified those sources, the data is marked as such?

Categories I believe we need to track are:

1. Annual budgets: compared and contrasted over time to EAV, population, per household, median income,users( student enrollment, e.g.).

2. Existing Debt: compared and contrasted over time to EAV, population, per household, median income, some standard measure of debt repayment of paid down rather than extended or cash-out-refinanced.

3. Unpublished Debt: amounts due presently and in future on zero coupon bonds, buildup attributed to interest-only payments on accrued debt, balloon payments due at future dates, and unfunded mandated liabilities such as defined-benefit pensions ( which should be described in terms of ultimate taxpayer liability– that is: if TRS or IMRF busts out, who legally owes what to whom?).

4. Follow The Money: what prices were paid with public money? This would include per acre prices paid by MCCD for example, with comparables during same time frame ( what was paid for land, and to whom, during depths of real estate crash depression in past seven years, for example)? What prices are paid per square foot for building projects? What is national average for similar projects? What about road projects? What are alternate uses of the available funding( like with road projects, funds can also be used for public safety, but officials most often elective channel funds toward roads)?

I would just pick a taxing district, use all those other organizations for resources, and feed information to Cal as you uncover it.

As time goes by maybe it can evolve into something else.

The most important thing is to get one watchdog per taxing district.