GILROY
– Local and state government bodies are asking for a lot of
money on the March 2 ballot, and local taxpayers have mixed views
on what they’re willing to pay for.
GILROY – Local and state government bodies are asking for a lot of money on the March 2 ballot, and local taxpayers have mixed views on what they’re willing to pay for.
Laurie Salter, 42, of Gilroy, knows one thing for sure; she will be voting against a $15 billion bond that would balance the state’s budget.
“I think (state legislators and the governor) need to learn how to balance the budget with the funds they have,” Salter said Monday at Garlic City Coffee and Tea in downtown Gilroy.
Salter said she would “have to think about” a $108 million bond for Gavilan College and a Santa Clara County Library tax increase of 25 percent.
“I’m not as against education as I am against just giving the government money,” Salter added.
On the other hand, fellow café patron Hector Gonzalez, 50, favored the state bond over the local requests, although he still didn’t know how he would vote.
“I guess it makes sense right now to borrow the money,” the owner of Los Pericos Taqueria on Fifth Street said of the state’s situation. “In several years, we’re going to be in trouble if we don’t take care of this.”
In this light, the local projects “can wait,” Gonzalez said.
“Improvements, they are needed everywhere, but you start doing improvements, that means there’s going to be a bigger deficit,” Gonzalez said.
Gavilan’s bond is for physical improvements and expansion to alleviate growing pains at the community college. The library tax is essential to maintain current hours and services, library officials say.
Across California, local special-project funding requests are being overshadowed by the state bonds. After local measures were secured on the March 2 ballot, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature added two of its own, totaling $27.3 billion – the biggest public borrowing package in California history:
• Proposition 57: $15 billion to balance the General Fund budget,
• Proposition 55: $12.3 billion for construction and renovation of public schools, from kindergarten through university. The Gilroy Unified School District would be eligible for as much as $14 million through this, but Gavilan College is off the list.
“When we made the decision to go forward, we definitely didn’t know those measures would be on the ballot,” Gavilan College Trustee Mark Dover said. “It is a lot for voters to swallow.”
Dover pointed out that Gavilan would get no money from Proposition 55.
“It probably means a lot for (kindergarten) through (12th grade), but for Gavilan College, it means zero,” Dover said. “I would hope the voters would look at where their tax dollars are going to stay locally first.”
Gilroy Mayor Al Pinheiro, sipping a cappuccino Monday, said he thinks all the ballot propositions are worthy of a yes vote. The state bonds are regrettable, he said, but the state may take money from cities if the propositions fail. This is the same argument county supervisors and Gilroy Unified School District trustees made in endorsing the bonds.
“There’s no question that we’re being pressed with more taxes,” Pinheiro said. “We’re paying for the mistakes that our state legislators made, and we’re just going to have to bite the bullet.”
Pinheiro and Salter, though their votes may differ, aren’t the only ones who say they trust local governments more than the state to manage their tax dollars.
“I would support anything related to education and reading, so I would probably vote yes to the community college and the library,” said Armando Vargas, a 33-year-old graduate student at University of California at Berkeley who moved to Gilroy in September. “(But) with $15 billion, there’s a lot of room for mismanagement, which is what got us in trouble in the first place. And I don’t have any confidence in our governor.”
“As soon as they pass one law, … they’re just going to turn around and pass another law to change it,” said 22-year-old Matt Reed, a server at Garlic City Coffee and Tea and singer with local band The Rivals. “They’re going to use the law to their advantage at all times. That’s why they’re in government.”
Anna Mandujano, 29, a Gavilan College student from Gilroy, said she wants to help her school and would vote yes to that bond. She has doubts about the state bonds, however.
“Since I’m single and don’t have children, they already take, like, a fourth of my paycheck away,” Mandujano said. “I would love to help, but I know that they’re going to raise the taxes even more, and I’m going to be left with even less.”
The impacts of propositions 55 and 57 on state taxes – income, gas, sales, property, etc. – over the next 30 years are unknown.
Gavilan College officials estimate their bond, called Measure E, would cost property owners in the Gavilan College District an extra $15 per $100,000 of assessed property value each year. It requires 55 percent approval from district voters.
Measure E breaks down to $68.4 million to improve existing facilities and $39.6 million to expand. The Gilroy campus has seen few improvements in its 35 years, officials say; among its needs are new water, electric and ventilation systems, air conditioning, heat, insulation, wheelchair access and added parking.
Expansion plans include relocating into bigger campuses in Hollister and Morgan Hill and bringing four-year “university centers” to Gilroy and Hollister. These centers would allow graduates of the two-year community college to move on to four-year programs without leaving town: through San Jose State University in Gilroy and in Hollister through California State University at Monterey Bay.
The library tax, called Measure B, requires two-thirds’ approval. If it passes, the fixed, annual library tax would increase by 25 percent for most types of property:
• single-family home – from $33.66 to $42
• retail-zoned land – from $84.15 to $105 per acre
• non-retail commercial land – from $252.45 to $315 per acre
• undeveloped land – from $6.52 to $ 8.40 per acre, a 29-percent increase.
For more information:
www.voterguide.ss.ca.gov/propositions/propositions.html
www.gavilan.edu/pio/bond.html
www-lib.co.santa-clara.ca.us/about/measureinfo/
www.yeson57and58.org
www.yeson55.org
