Proposition 39. School Facilities. 55% Local Vote. Bonds, Taxes. Accountability Requirements.

This Proposition allows local areas to authorize bonds fro school facility repairs and construction, if passed by a 55% local vote instead of the 2/3rds local vote requires today. The money can't be used for salaries or operating expenses and must be accounted for. Also, property taxes (to pay for the bonds) can be raised in excess of the 1% byt a 55% local vote (instead of the 2/3rds required today). In general Prop 39 allows school districts to take on more debt in order to keep their schools in good condition.

The Pro argument is that we need to fix our schools. Prop 39 will hold administrators accountable for spending the money appropriately, including submitting their paperwork to two independ audits per year. It mandates citizen watchdog committees to make sure the money is spent correctly and not on spurious school projects. Prop 39 also caps and limits the amount that property taxes can be raised by a local school bond. The rebuttal is that the watchdog committees and limits on property taxes were added to Prop 39 after it was filed, so can be removed to changed without voter approval (although presumably by majority Legislature vote). Good bonds pass now. 62% of bonds passed since 1996 (using 2/3rds vote, although this is all bonds, not just school bonds, which don't tend to pass). Every bond creates a lien on your home.

The Con argument: this is not about schools, this is about your home and property taxes. With Prop 39 there is no limit to property tax increases (note that the provision was added by Legislature, but only if Prop 39 passes and it's not part of the Proposition), will force people to lose their homes and make apartment rent go up, is unfair to poorer districts which have more students and more need of the money. Prop 39 does not require student performance improvements (although I don't see why it should since the money is only for facility improvements, and let's face it just how much money can schools ask for facility improvements?) and does not require parental or taxpayer oversight. In 1978 property taxes were 2.6 times higher, do you want that to repeat itself? (My god! If you consider inflation, the state must get nothing from property taxes. It's about time they were raised.)

The rebuttal is that the extra provisions will only be passed if Prop 39 passes (as I mentioned). They also have a couple of quotes from people I don't care about saying that the Cons are a bunch of liars. Vote Yes so that we can have more classrooms (smaller class sizes), cut waste and abuses that have taken place in some districts (presumably through that audit clause), and assure our children and grandchildren of safe schools (oh, the kids can take care of themselves).

So what do I think about Prop 39. I must say that I believe strongly in our public schools and that we should be funding them more. So naturally I'm initially in favor of Prop 39. Using bonds are not necessarily the right way to go about it, as we're borrowing to pay for things now when it should be the state government's responsibility to allocate more funds. If lots of bonds are passed then those school districts don't need that much money so let's allocate the funds somewhere else, or so I think the state legislature will argue (but there is that Proposition that guarantees a minimum funding for the school system). I don't think the extra property taxes (and higher rent) are anything to worry about, especially when you consider that people dealt with much higher taxes in the 70's when money was valued more too.

When ever I've seen school bonds up for local vote, it's always parents with school-aged kids voting yes and everybody else no. Since a lot of these bonds don't pass I would guess that means that less than 2/3rds of school districts are households with school-aged kids. The argument is that people don't want to pay for your child's schooling if they're not going to benefit. But I can't really agree with that. All our children are important, and proper schooling is also important. With some reservation, I think Prop 39 will do more good than harm.