Students Take Their Budget Analysis to Sunnyvale City Hall

On Monday afternoon, seven CompassPoint Mentorship students walked into Sunnyvale City Hall and presented a year of financial analysis to the people who actually write the budget.

The Public Data Project began at the request of Sunnyvale City Councilmember Murali Srinivasan, who asked whether a team of students could help answer a question facing cities across the South Bay: why are so many of them running deficits this year, and is current spending sustainable?

What the students did

Each student adopted a city or county — Santa Clara County, Sunnyvale, Cupertino, Mountain View, Milpitas, San José, San Mateo County — and went after its public financial data. Budgets. Comprehensive annual financial reports. Open-data portal exports. Ten years of it, spanning before and after COVID.

Then they did the work that makes data mean something: documenting where every figure came from, building the analysis in Power BI and Colab, and distilling it down to a few findings that matter rather than a wall of charts.

Some of what they found

Cupertino. Revenue and expenses are both falling, but revenue is falling faster — the surplus is narrowing. Sales tax is down, tied in part to Apple's evolving tax agreement with the city. The net position is still strong, but the risks are real: high pension liability, dependence on a shrinking tech tax base, and uncertainty in federal funding.

Mountain View and Sunnyvale. Sunnyvale has the larger population but the lower revenue. Mountain View's investment income is unusually strong for its size. Sunnyvale's picture is shaped in part by its water utility finances.

Work on Santa Clara County, San José, Milpitas and San Mateo County is underway, each led by a student researcher.

Why it matters

Most student data projects end with a grade. This one ends in a council chamber. The whole point of the project — stated from the beginning — was to bring findings to the officials who make budgeting decisions, and on Monday that is exactly what happened.

The team is building a public dashboard, a digital twin to gather citizen reactions to budget scenarios, and a website summarising what they have found.

The team

Students: Annie Yu, Russell Wang, Aiden Zhang, I Huan Chao, Maya Lian, Kevin Cross, Selena Zhang

Mentors: Dr. Xiaojing Dong, Professor at Santa Clara University · Linda Liu, Finance Director · Councilmember Murali Srinivasan, who requested the project and has reviewed the team's findings throughout

CompassPoint Mentorship is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, EIN 46-2389059.