Vote no on Proposition 13. There has to be a better way! For a state with schools sadly ranking consistently near the lowest in the country, along with declining test scores and high dropout rates, Prop. 13’s $26 billion bill won’t solve our educational problems. It is all for yet unspecified infrastructure and does nothing for actual improvements in California’s classroom education.
The debt servicing to the taxpayers for this measure is projected to average “about $740 million per year over the next 35 years.” This multigenerational taxing commitment will repay Wall Street the $15 billion principal, plus the projected $11 billion in accumulated interest, which is 73% “rent“ for the initial $15 billion and over 42% of the entire bill of $26 billion.
All of this “new debt” to us, our children and grandchildren is on top of the $9 billion voters approved in 2016 for the same purposes: build and repair public schools. Apparently, there are billions left in unsold bonds from that and previous bond approvals and the public bond oversight committees have been viewed by many as ineffective and inefficient.
Here’s the kicker: Due to progressively higher taxes, much of it based on rapidly rising appraised values of our homes, California’s general fund has a $21 billion budget surplus!
It makes no sense for California voters to have to take on a $26 billion multigenerational debt obligation when the state could pay the proposed infrastructure budget of $15 billion out of these excess funds and the taxpayers avoid the added $11 billion over the next 35 years!
Vote NO on Prop. 13. There has to be a better way!
Gary Curtis
Newhall
