Two years ago, the San Diego County Taxpayers Association endorsed just over half the local school bond measures on the November ballot.
This year, the group is backing all but one.
These are different times for the SDCTA on several levels.
For one thing, there’s the number of bond proposals. In 2024, there were 22, with the association backing 12. This year, nine are heading to the ballot, eight with SDCTA’s endorsement.
The association says it maintains a consistent, rigorous assessment of proposed bond and tax measures.
“We evaluate every measure the same way — on the strength of the spending plan, the accountability safeguards in place, and whether the agency has earned the public’s trust with the dollars it already manages,” Mark Kersey, president and CEO of the association, said in a statement earlier this month when the organization announced its positions on local ballot measures.
Not everybody felt that way before Kersey was named to the post in February and the SDCTA was overhauled into a leaner operation. The 81-year-old organization had been rocked by two scandals that tarnished its image and raised questions about the value of its endorsements.
Extensive budget irregularities that had been occurring for some time surfaced last year, leaving the organization that demands exacting fiscal standards of government agencies basically broke, according to Jeff McDonald of The San Diego Union-Tribune.
At the same time, some school officials accused SDCTA of essentially engaging in a pay-to-play scheme for endorsements and other unethical behavior that they believed affected decisions on endorsements, the Voice of San Diego reported.
Former CEO Haney Hong abruptly resigned just before the scandals became public and, for a time, the SDCTA couldn’t even pay an interim replacement.
A few months after Kersey was hired, the association started trying to regain its profile as a watchdog by issuing two separate reports critical of the finances and management of San Diego’s city and county governments.
Meanwhile, a notable change was made before the assessments of this year’s school bond measures. Critics noted that in 2024 SDCTA again held a course on school bonds, but charged much more than in earlier years — $1,200 per person. Some school officials balked and later openly questioned whether it was a fundraising tool and if endorsements were linked to attendance.
Even a former SDCTA board member expressed concern about the potential conflict, according to the Voice of San Diego.
A similar course was held by SDCTA this past May, but the fee was $100.
Kersey said he didn’t think there were trust issues with school districts today because of the past controversies.
“I don’t believe so,” he said in an interview. “…We have open lines of communication.”
The Santee School District’s bond measure two years ago was endorsed by the association, but district officials criticized the process because of Hong’s attempt to attach conditions. This time around, the district had nothing but compliments.
“SDCTA’s review and endorsement process was very professional, and staff provided our team with excellent communication throughout the process,” the district said in an email.
“The process for seeking an endorsement from the SDCTA board was very similar to years past … however the criteria for the endorsement was streamlined. … we felt very confident in the process used this year.”
Two Santee district officials attended the bond course, including Superintendent Kristin Baranski. “It was made very clear that our attendance at that event did not impact a potential endorsement by SDCTA,” the email said.
The email concluded that the association has signed the ballot argument for the district’s Measure BB, a $30 million bond proposal, “with no conditions.”
In 2024, after the SDCTA board already endorsed the Santee bond, Hong initially demanded the district in its bond ballot argument oppose a city of Santee sales tax on the ballot, or withdraw any mention of the association’s support from the ballot argument. The district refused, SDCTA backed down, and Hong signed the argument.
That bond was rejected by voters (as was the city tax) and the district came back with another one this year. So did the city. As it happens, SDCTA this year also is endorsing the proposed 1-cent sales tax increase, which the association called “materially different” from the last one.
The SDCTA is also backing an Oceanside half-cent sales tax increase, while opposing four other tax and government reorganization measures.
Oceanside is a Democratic town and Santee is Republican. That’s worth noting as the association’s fiscally conservative approach often has led to the perception that the group has a partisan bent.
Kersey said a key to this year’s endorsement process was early communication with government agencies before measures were finalized. That way, any issues the SDCTA had could be more easily addressed, if those agencies chose to do so.
“We really encourage that early contact,” Kersey said.
The contrasting explanations for opposition to the county’s half-cent sales tax proposal on the ballot and support for Vista Unified School District’s $543 million school bond give insight into the SDCTA’s assessment process, though certainly, in general, not everyone agrees with their analyses.
The county’s half-cent sales tax, SDCTA says, has no sunset clause, no year-over-year performance targets for the public to track, and an oversight committee whose “seats appear to exclude” a recognized taxpayer advocate.
On the last point, Kersey said that was not a demand that the person be affiliated with the SDCTA. He also said the association believes sunset clauses are necessary so a tax can be re-evaluated, adjusted and potentially extended by voters.
The Vista Unified bond meets many of those criteria, according to the SDCTA. The district, the association said, further has an “A+” transparency rating, consolidated four campuses since 2011 rather than build for growth, committed that no bond proceeds will backfill its general fund, and exceeded its own maintenance benchmark every year for five years — “the kind of stewardship the criteria are built to recognize.”
Clearly, the taxpayers association is trying to re-establish its position in the world of San Diego policy and politics.
“It’s a new day in terms of leadership,” Kersey said. He maintained the group remains an institution of consequence.
“The taxpayers association is the San Diego region’s oldest, largest and most respected local government watchdog organization, and we take that responsibility very seriously,” he said.
It will be difficult to gauge whether SDCTA is recovering from the hit to its credibility based on how the ballot measures fare in November.
Before the scandals surfaced, the record was not good. Only five of the 12 bond measures endorsed by the association in 2024 passed. Of the 10 the association opposed or took no position on, nine passed.
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