Editor, Manteca Bulletin,
Proposition 39 bonds like Measure I, which require a 55% threshold to pass, have only existed since 2000. For the 120+ years before that, bonds and property tax increases were required to obtain a 66% threshold to pass. The writers of the California constitution realized that not all voting on a property tax increase would actually pay for it, so 66% was a way to protect the actual tax payers from a simple minority of non-tax payers passing a unfair taxation on to others, also known as “taxation without representation”.
Can you believe it, California was originally set up to protect those actually paying taxes!
Thanks to Bay Area billionaires and bankers investing millions in Prop 39, this new kind of bond was approved with the lower threshold. Why? These banks and billionaires buy up these relatively safe municipal bonds and make billions in interest payment with virtually no risk. Prop 39 bonds are legally allowed to be made up to 7:1 terms, meaning the government borrows 1 dollar and taxpayers pay back 7. How is this good for any one?
Since Prop 39 passed, an astonishing 90% of bonds have passed — including over $100,000,000,000 in new taxes on California taxpayers.
There is over $15,000,000,000 on the ballot just the Nov. 6 election ($31,000,000,000 after interest).
If Measure I should pass, Ripon schools will get $38 million but the bill to homeowners will be $88 million. That is $50 million in interest leaving our community and going to the bank accounts of billionaires and bank investment portfolios. This is $12.5 million in interest leaving our community every decade during the finance period, which now leaves our community forever.
Ask yourself — how is this sustainable? What do we do the next time we need more facilities? Combined with Measure G which passed, Riponites would be on the hook for $113 million in two bonds in a five-year period.
The law firm hired to consult and write Measure I for Ripon, Caldwell Flores Winter, is alone responsible for $12 billion in new taxes on Californians just since 2010. These special interest lawyers go around to districts convincing them it’s the only way, make it about the kids, and provide them a blue print on how to get voter approval. The districts get their loud supporters fired up, send out countless fliers promoting their ‘accomplishments’ and it’s virtually impossible to stop thanks to that 55% threshold; after all, “it’s for the kids!”. These law firms love small town politics, where a few loud supporters can force groups into endorsing the government debt, and also convincing people to vote in favor of it.
‘Those supporters will tell you “it’s the only way”, “our schools don’t get the same money as other districts”, “it’s our future” but the truth is every district in the state uses these and a Band-Aid and never addresses the larger issue. There IS a problem with school funding in California, but it isn’t because the taxpayers need to pay more! Our elected officials and administrators need to take action and try to fix the problem before we reach a trillion dollars in school bond debt in California, which only a decade or so from today.
This is not a Democrat issue or a Republican issue; it’s a systematic issue in California that now lawyers and investors have learned to take advantage of and bleed billions from our communities.
If every country office of education and district in the state demanded we use the tax dollars we are already paying to fund the schools, we wouldn’t have these issues. But administrators of districts get a reputation for passing a bond, then get a higher paying job somewhere to pass a bond, or become a consultant with a firm like Caldwell Flores Winter — all the while the “kids” they served are left to pay the debt for generations.
I urge everyone to get educated on Prop 39 bonds, demand action from our officials and schools, and vote “no” to $88 million in new Ripon taxes.
-Mark Stotzer
Ripon
