A Taxpayer Oversight Committee That Works!!

By Jim Ryan, Executive Vice President

Well.....it has been a few weeks since we focused on our old friend Tom Lemmon, head of the San Diego Building and Construction Trades Council. Tom has probably been spending time helping Lorena Gonzalez, head of the AFL-CIO, in her bid to be elected to the State Assembly. (She is running in the 80th State Assembly District in a special election).

This article is about a committee that I have served on for the last 8 years ....the Independent Taxpayers Oversight Committee...the ITOC. ITOC is the oversight committee that monitors the expenditures of funds generated from the county-wide TransNet sales tax. My last meeting was last week due to term limits. In my opinion, ITOC has developed into the model for taxpayer oversight committees.

TransNet is the half cent sales tax for local transportation projects that was approved by voters in 1988, and then extended in 2004 for another 40 years. Just over 67% of the voters in San Diego County voted in favor of the TransNet tax......a "full" 1/3 of 1% more than was needed to pass the initiative! TransNet generates about $250,000,000 each year, and as time goes on, will generate even more as prices rise, etc