Making Democracy Readable
There is a fundamental paradox in American politics: the level of government that impacts our daily lives the most is the one we pay the least attention to.
The Local Impact Paradox
While national elections dominate the news, it is your local city council that decides whether an affordable housing project gets built, how much funding goes to public safety, whether your street gets a bike lane, and how high your local taxes will be. Yet, despite this massive local impact, voter engagement remains shockingly low. According to the Who Votes for Mayor project by Portland State University, turnout for local elections in many U.S. cities regularly hovers between just 15% and 20%.
Why? Because paying attention to local government is exhausting.
The Illusion of Transparency
City halls often claim to be "transparent" because they publish their records online. But uploading a dense, 500-page PDF of a city budget or a 200-page meeting agenda isn't true transparency—it's compliance.
Public policy researchers refer to this as an "administrative burden." When information is technically public but practically impossible to read without spending a dozen hours a week deciphering legal and procedural jargon, the average working citizen is locked out of the process.
This creates an environment where only paid lobbyists, special interest groups, and political insiders have the time to understand what elected officials are actually doing. Candidates can campaign on promises to fix the housing crisis or protect the environment, but once in office, their actual voting records and budget decisions vanish into the bureaucratic machinery.
Our Mission: Data Over Rhetoric
The philosophy behind MyLocalGovernment.com is simple: an informed democracy requires accessible data. We are building tools to strip away the administrative burden of local civics, allowing residents to judge their representatives on their actions, not their campaign slogans.
We focus on the two most objective measures of government action:
The Roll Call (How they vote)
We track council votes on core community issues—Housing, Environment, Public Safety, Transportation, and Economic Development. By categorizing these votes and calculating a simple "Alignment Score," we provide a clear percentage showing how often an official actually votes for the policies they promised.
The Ledger (How they spend)
Policy is meaningless without funding. As the Urban Institute notes, state and local governments are the primary drivers of infrastructure and public service spending in the U.S. Our fiscal portal translates complex municipal budgets into plain English, so you can see exactly where your tax dollars are going.
Starting in Santa Cruz
We are piloting this platform in Santa Cruz, California. With a current municipal operating budget of $147 million ($2,262 per resident) and a highly engaged community facing complex challenges around housing and environmental sustainability, Santa Cruz is the perfect proving ground.
If we can build a system that accurately and fairly translates the complexities of Santa Cruz politics into clear scorecards and budget dashboards, we can scale this model to any city in the country.
The Bottom Line
Government data belongs to the public. You shouldn't need a law degree or a background in finance to know if your city council member is doing a good job. By organizing the data and making it readable, we aim to level the playing field, increase local voter engagement, and finally hold local government accountable to the people it serves.