Follow the money
Just imagine it. You get up in the morning, and pad down your
San Juan Bautista driveway to grab the morning paper. One of the
town’s 63 municipal employees nods as he polishes curbstones in
your immaculate Eden.
Follow the money
Just imagine it. You get up in the morning, and pad down your San Juan Bautista driveway to grab the morning paper. One of the town’s 63 municipal employees nods as he polishes curbstones in your immaculate Eden.
Reality check.
San Juan, one of the region’s smallest incorporated cities, lists 3.7 municipal employees (the 0.7 is for the town librarian) among its estimated 1,825 residents. Count the chickens and the population swells markedly.
But if San Juan’s situation equaled that of San Francisco’s unimaginably bloated budget and city staff, there would be several city employees for every block in town.
San Francisco’s 809,000 residents foot the bill for 27,884 municipal workers, paid for with a $6 billion annual budget. Lest you lose track of the zeroes, here’s how $6 billion looks: $6,000,000,000.00.
Whoa Nellie.
That amounts to municipal spending of $7,416.56 for every person in town, and one city worker for every 29 residents.
With that kind of kitty, no wonder Mayor Gavin Newsom is such a snappy dresser.
Certainly this is an apples to oranges comparison. San Francisco has homelessness issues. People in San Juan pretty much sleep indoors. San Francisco has to maintain its aging transit system. People in San Juan can just walk. San Francisco is governed by a board of supervisors larger than the legislatures of most countries, and they all have staff. San Juan is governed by a smaller – and infinitely cheaper – city council. Hard experience has taught San Juan residents that they pretty much have to depend on themselves, rather than City Hall.
But a little quality time with a calculator reveals what could be if there was any justice in local government.
If San Juan had a budget equivalent to San Francisco’s, it would be $13.53 million, nearly 14 times its current $934,000. Wow! That might even be enough to pave some streets and to solve the troublesome feral chicken issue once and for all.
The same ratio of city employees would yield 63 paid, benefited, pension-accruing public workers.
Instead, San Juan makes do with one city employee for every 493 residents, and it spends just $511 annually for every resident.
While nobody celebrates paying taxes, it appears we’re getting a relative bargain.
It’s easy to take a swing at San Francisco’s profligate spending. It’s almost like they mint money there. Oh, wait a minute. There is a federal mint there.
So let’s go down the road a bit. San Jose is home to 974,000. They stitch society together there with just 6,992 employees and a city budget of a mere $1 billion. What a reality check!
That amounts to one employee for every 139 residents and annual per capita expenditures of $1,026. How do they make do?
As much as there is to commend a visit to San Francisco, a casual look around, followed by a stroll through San Juan, may reveal that about 809,000 people may not be getting their money’s worth. At least they can lay claim to Mayor Newsom’s perfect hair.
What’s for dinner?
News flash: crime wave in Morgan Hill. Morgan Hills crack detectives arrested an Illinois man Tuesday afternoon on suspicion that he stole more than 300 gallons of grease from a Burger King restaurant there.
David Richardson, 49, was reportedly seen brazenly pumping grease from a storage tank into his truck in broad daylight.
Morgan Hill cops list the value of the sludge at $405.
The case begs several unanswered questions.
First, why wasn’t the grease in Burger King’s burgers and fries, where it belongs? Second, where does one go to fence 300 gallons of rancid fat? Finally, what’s an appropriate side dish?
Can it be coincidence that the case was cracked on April Fool’s Day?
