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Santa Clara Unified School District $419,000,000 Bond Issue: Measure H_
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Argument Against the Santa Clara Unified School District $419,000,000 Bond Issue: Measure H_
Bond measures, such as the Measure H, being proposed, saddle the District with new debt that must be serviced. To service the new debt and pay it back, the District either has to divert existing revenues used to provide education services or force all property owners in the district pay additional property taxes. And servicing the debt is really expensive. 3% interest on $419,000,000 bond means paying $12,570,000 in annual interest for 25-30 years. The total cost of the bond measure in today's dollars is $534,737,137.00 if serviced at 3% and paid back after 25 years.
We, the taxpayers must ask whether the District put its existing debt to good use. Does the school District really need this new bond debt? Let's look at the history.
Just 4 years ago, voters passed a $81,000,000 bond measure to “renovate” schools and 10 years ago voters passed a $315,000,000 bond measure to “repair facilities” and in 1997 voters passed another $145,000,000 bond measure for “renovation”.
So, they have already spent a whopping $541,000,000 to upgrade facilities and now they want to add $419,000,000 to do the same thing all over again.
What did they do with more than half a billion dollars?
Remember, school bonds are mortgages in that they have to be paid back, in full, plus interest. These interest payments don’t go to teachers, library books, computers, or maintenance, etc.; they just go to service the debt. If this keeps going, eventually, all of the revenue of the district will be needed to service bonds and not educate kids.
Is this the best use of your tax dollars? At some point, enough is enough!
If you disagree, please vote NO on Measure H.
You can be for schools, for students, and against Measure H.