San Diego County Votes on Historic $6.7 Billion in School Bonds

Bonds are used by school districts to borrow money and then request taxpayers for an increase of their property taxes to pay for them.

Of the 22 bonds, 14 are projected to pass, totaling $6.1 billion in funding.

"It surprises me in that it's just a big number; the number of governments that are looking for more tax dollars," said Haney Hong, president and CEO of San Diego County Taxpayers Association (SDTA).

"I've never seen this many tax proposals, so I'm shocked in that way," Hong told The Epoch Times, "But I am also not surprised ... this is the problem that we have in California. It is going to continue until we really start to change some fundamental things."

One of the fundamental problems, he said, is the governance structure. "We have way too many local governments," school districts included, "and a lot of money is spent on management," he said.

The other issue is "out of control" labor costs—including the "upward trend" of teacher's compensation, Hong said, adding that it is "the main driver" of the increasing costs for local governments, to the point that schools can't afford regular maintenance.

"They're just not doing the maintenance they should do. Then, stuff breaks [and] they go out for a bond to get the money to fix it. We're seeing a lot more bonds," he said.

In California, the general funds that school districts receive from the state are used for basic school operations, including salaries. But for projects such as major repairs, renovation, and new construction, school districts have to rely on bonds.

San Diego Community College District's Bond Measure HH is $3.5 billion, and Southwestern Community College District's Measure SW is $800 million.

SDTA supported both measures. And both are projected to pass.

Measure HH's ballot label says the bond will be used to repair classrooms, protect college affordability, prepare students for careers including nursing, firefighting, science, [and] engineering, and improve veteran/homeless student resources, among other uses.

"This was our first one in 18 years," San Diego Community College District Board of Trustees President Bernie Rhinerson told The Epoch Times. The money is expected to be used over the next two decades to support four colleges, which have seven campuses in the City of San Diego.

Rhinerson said the bond is necessary to support some of the major costs that the state does not fund.

Measure W by Cajon Valley Union School District in East County San Diego, which asked voters to authorize a $280 million bond, was also supported by SDTA.

District superintendent David Miyashiro said the bond is needed to fix old facilities and equip campuses with new security systems.

He said some of the schools in the district are over 150 years old. "The plumbing, infrastructure, even electricity, all the different things that need to be modernized are very expensive to do."

The district also hopes to add security systems with keyless entries and functioning cameras to monitor campuses. "These should-be standard safety procedures are tens of millions of dollars to put in across the district's 28 schools," Miyashiro said. He said those types of upgrades can only be done with bonds.

The latest unofficial election results on Nov. 15 showed that Measure W got a 51.6 percent "Yes" vote, a few percent short of the 55 percent threshold for passing.

Should the bond measure fail, the district may also lose its opportunity to access the $10 billion state bond that was presented to the voters in the same November election as Proposition 2 but is projected to pass. Prop. 2, also called the Public School and Community College Facility Fund, would provide matching funding to local bonds.

"It shows voters' confidence in the district. And I think the voters recognize how important the educational mission is of our community colleges and the impact that we have on the local economy and preparing students to get jobs and improve their lives through education," he said.

Besides the Cajon Valley District's measure, many of the likely-to-fail bonds are from the rural parts of San Diego County. Haney suggested that is because people in those areas already "are stretched to the max and they didn't want to have to pay more in taxes."

Estimated average property tax rates for the 14 projected-to-pass bonds are between $19 to $40 per $100,000 assessed valuation of the property. That is, if using a $25 levy rate as an estimation and if a property has an assessed valuation of $500,000, the owner will see an extra $125 annual tax on their property tax bill to pay for the bond.

And if the property is within a school district as well as a community college district that both have passing bonds, the owner would have to pay extra taxes for both bonds.

Hong said if the state and local districts "budgeted appropriately to school facility needs," voters would be asked for fewer bonds.

"Unfortunately, very few people see what's happening across the system." When people see facilities are broken, they want to get better facilities for the kids, he said. So a lot of times, the bonds pass.

"If everyone keeps passing these bonds, then what incentive does the state have the budget appropriately?" he asked.