Why does government keep running out of your money?

February 19, 2026

Andy Caldwell

OPINION by ANDY CALDWELL

Two years after San Luis Obispo County supervisors declared that road maintenance was no longer a priority, the SLO County Association of Governments wants to raise sales taxes to help maintain roads. Talk about mixed signals!

The City of Santa Barbara is also planning to raise taxes. It is considering raising the bed taxes at hotels and motels, and worse, charging people tens of thousands of dollars more when they sell their house via a property transfer tax. How is that going to make housing more affordable?

Santa Barbara County is the worst. The supervisors there are still considering raising the sales tax also.

However, what the Santa Barbara County sups really want the money for is to backfill the cost of services to illegal aliens because President Trump has cut off the proverbial spigot. That is, don’t let their $500 million road, building and parks maintenance deficit fool you into thinking they would use the new tax dollars for anything important to most taxpayers.

Let’s discuss the real reason all these government entities keep running out of your money. Virtually all local governments are spending over half of all tax dollars on themselves in the form of salaries, benefits, and pensions. Moreover, these personnel costs have been skyrocketing with respect to inflation and population growth.

Former Santa Barbara County Supervisor Mike Stoker, who now heads up the Santa Barbara County Taxpayer Advocacy Center, gives us an example as it relates to the county, the most bloated of all local governments. Between the year 2000 and today, Santa Barbara County’s population grew from 399,347 to 441,000—a modest and manageable increase of 10.43%.

Stoker notes, “In a world of responsible governance, one might expect the budget to grow at a similar pace, perhaps slightly higher to account for inflation.” Instead, the county budget exploded.

In 2000, the county operated on approximately $475 million. Today, that figure has ballooned to a staggering $1.69 billion. That is a 355.69% increase in spending to serve a population that grew by only 10%.

In that same time period, the average fully loaded cost (salary, benefits, and pensions) of each county employee more than doubled to $177,700! Here is the overall trend going back just five years.

What else doubled?

The county charges various fees for “services.” Some of the highest fees are charged to new construction for so-called traffic impacts (this is on top of all the taxes paid by citizens and businesses to maintain roads).

These fees have risen in a proportionate manner as have county salaries, i.e., doubling. Coincidence? I don’t think so.

The fact is, while the traffic fees go into a fund to maintain or expand roads, the county reserves the money that used to pay for roads for their own inurement.

For example, in the year 2000, the traffic impact fee charged in “Goleta” (before it was incorporated) for a 24-hour, 2,000 square foot convenience store was $460,000. Today, that same fee is $1 million in area surrounding Goleta.

See the current, shocking fee schedule here.

The truth is, the exorbitant cost of living in California for fuel, water, electricity, housing, and commerce is driven by the ever-increasing cost of government, not the goods themselves. Serving constituents is no longer the highest priority of government.

We’re essentially ignored, except when they want to take advantage of us once more.

Andy Caldwell is the executive director of COLAB in Santa Barbara County and host of The Andy Caldwell Radio Show, weekdays from 3-5 p.m. on  FM 98.5, FM 99.5, AM 1240, AM 1290 and FM 96.9.