California Policy Center’s Education Policy VP Lance Christensen breaks down questions to ask re: SJ Unified’s $1.15 bn “facility repairs” bond measure: Where’s our money going, exactly? What should be prioritized? And (as many Opp Now readers echo) can we trust SJUSD’s fiscal discipline? An Opp Now exclusive.

As far as ballot measures like SJUSD’s Measure R go, I think everyone should take a step back and ask the basic questions. For starters, what’s been done with our money recently? What’s been the forecasting, budgeting, and strategic plans, all of which should be considered? And what should our municipalities’ priorities be? Then, ballot measures should be built around the scope of those conversations.

What often happens with these measures, though, especially in California, is they spend every last dollar on expensive overhead (usually salaries, benefits, and pensions); and capital or maintenance projects are left to the end. So they run out of money and can’t fulfill their promises, then they have to go to voters and ask for more. It’s rinse and repeat; the same story for almost every California ballot measure this year. There’s not a lot of fiscal discipline.

[Editor’s note: His point is daylighted by San Jose Unified’s overall fiscal strength grade in California Policy Center’s new Local Fiscal Health Dashboard: a “D,” or 57 out of 100 points.]