If raising taxes hasn’t improved school facility conditions in the past, under nearly identical circumstances and proposals, should we believe that it will today? And what can we make of the popularity of Donald Trump in this election cycle? What does it mean for republicans and democrats, and where does that leave us for this election, and future ones?

Will a tax hike improve school buildings? That was the question asked in a ballot proposition in 2012. Voters decided that yes, it certainly would, and $1 billion has been spent since then.

Regardless of the tremendous amount of resources and tax dollars, though, new data shows that San Diego’s city schools are in worse shape.

Now, in 2016, voters might again be asked to shoulder a tax hike in the name of improving schools.

Podcast hosts Scott Lewis and Andrew Keatts doubt that throwing more tax dollars at the same problem will somehow work better this time around.

Also on the show, political consultant Jason Roe gives folks a look at the Republican angle of events playing out in San Diego and on a national scale.

Plus, Roe says a minimum wage hike would hurt the lower class more than it would help, he talks about the role negative campaigns play in elections and makes the case for why voting for Donald Trump may just equal voting for Hillary Clinton.

Hero of the Week

This week, the city of San Diego took steps to release a large variety of data online. This is fantastic news for nerds, entrepreneurs and anyone else who finds this information useful in their pursuits or curiosity. Vote on which data sets should be prioritized at DataSD.org.

Goat of the Week

The Metropolitan Transit System is not allowing anyone to load money on their Compass Cards and the entire process of using the cards has been described as incredibly frustrating by those who use it. Not only that, it appears that the entire system is not as secure and safe for user information as anyone would hope.

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