There’s one great thing about the upcoming Gilroy Unified School
District school board election: There are four candidates for three
open seats.
There’s one great thing about the upcoming Gilroy Unified School District school board election: There are four candidates for three open seats. There’s one terrible thing as well: the four candidates running for three seats all adamantly agreed on one thing: the $150 million school facilities bond must pass. What a shame.
Without taking into account that 90 percent of all bond issues requiring only a 55 percent affirmative vote of the electorate to pass do so, there are glaring reasons no one seems to be talking about why this bond should not pass.
Last month, I was asked and agreed to address the Gilroy Chamber of Commerce Government Relations Committee against Measure P. When Kai Lai called me seeking a con viewpoint to Measure P, I joked that the list of people willing to speak against Measure P must be very short if he was asking me to address the GRC. He agreed a bit too quickly for me to believe he was joking as much as I was. Actually, Kai and the GRC were gracious hosts and I respect the work they do.
My major concerns then with Measure P were very simple: district financial accountability and district transparency. If you view the GUSD website on previous school improvement bonds (Measures I and J) the information available is minimal at best. There are no spending estimates, no completed cost vs. estimated cost comparisons, no photographs depicting projects before, during, and after, and one chilling absence – no timelines and project schedules.
If you’re scratching your head and asking, “Geez, Ben where do you dream this stuff up?” I don’t. Someone else already has.
The Sunnyvale School District provides all of those data transparently and more about their passed school bonds. SSD posted detailed project schedules, project bids, information and final costs, including detailed change-order listings on their web site. It’s a shame GUSD doesn’t provide that manner of data to the people who will be paying annually for up to 40 years should Measure P pass.
Measure P advocates like to beat boast this bond is actually saving property owners money, because the fee per $100K in assessed value is less than the last bond we passed in 2002. Sounds too much like the insidiously deceptive Gilroy city utility tax that recently passed. The city utility tax rate dropped from 5 percent to 4.5 percent, but that 4.5 percent was applied to a great many items. Measure P is of the same ilk. Sure the charge per $100K is less, but this bond is for a lot longer, ladies and gentlemen. If the district were really concerned about saving property owners money, they would have built the original version of Christopher High School and spent only around $40 million rather than the monstrosity they have begun building without funding in place.
Isn’t that a bit bass-ackwards? The district begins construction of a project they knew they couldn’t afford and didn’t have 100 percent financing for. That fact alone demonstrates reckless abandon and financial impropriety. It also tells Gilroy voters GUSD assumed the bond will pass way before they even drafted its loose language. Measure P is also a ransom note – give us $150 million or you’ll never see an uncrowded Gilroy High School.
Further, Measure P’s bond language enables GUSD to tap into funds earmarked for construction of CHS and improvements to touch every district school, to pay off Certificates of Participation from PREVIOUS bond issues. How about that? Your hard-paid property assessments, should Measure P pass, are going to pay off over $30 million in previous bond obligations to the state, which holds title to improvements and real estate through COP’s until they are paid back. So, not all of Measure P goes toward CHS construction and schools improvements. Nothing like a bit of let me borrow tomorrow to pay what I should have yesterday. Reminiscent of visiting the sins of the father upon the son, 20 percent of Measure P goes to past debt.
In the end we all will vote our conscience. Speaking of conscience, there’s one small bit of inequity left unaddressed by Measure P supporters. Only property owners, not renters, are affected by Measure P’s ill effect. All of Gilroy, not just property owners will vote on Measure P. Non-owners can vote to assess a tax they won’t pay. This is tantamount to taxation without representation. Founding Fathers rejected that. So should we. Reject Measure P.
Ben Anderson is a longtime Gilroyan and father of two fantastic teens. His column is published weekly.
