Where the Jobs Aren't

California Senate President pro Tempore Kevin de Leon, left, Gov. Jerry Brown, center, and Prop. 39 co-chair Tom Steyer take photos with students at John Marshall High School in Los Angeles Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2014. Marshall High School has been approved for $1,836,072 of Prop. 39 funds for energy projects including: new air systems for the auditorium and classrooms, lighting controls for the gym and other high-use areas, a new energy management system, and improved lighting throughout the campus. Gov. Jerry Brown, is seen bottom left, and Senate President pro Tempore Kevin de Leon, right. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

The jobs aren’t in California (surprise!) and they aren’t in green energy (another surprise!).

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Three years after California voters passed a ballot measure to raise taxes on corporations and generate clean energy jobs by funding energy-efficiency projects in schools, barely one-tenth of the promised jobs have been created, and the state has no comprehensive list to show how much work has been done or how much energy has been saved.

Money is trickling in at a slower-than-anticipated rate, and more than half of the $297 million given to schools so far has gone to consultants and energy auditors. The board created to oversee the project and submit annual progress reports to the Legislature has never met, according to a review by The Associated Press.

Voters in 2012 approved the Clean Energy Jobs Act by a large margin, closing a tax loophole for multistate corporations. The Legislature decided to send half the money to fund clean energy projects in schools, promising to generate more than 11,000 jobs each year.

Instead, only 1,700 jobs have been created in three years, raising concerns about whether the money is accomplishing what voters were promised.

Voters might not be getting what they were promised, but they’re getting exactly what the damn fools should have expected — a slush fund for “consultants and energy auditors,” whatever the hell “energy auditors” are.