Why the school bonds failed

The 2018 election season saw the taxpayers in Lompoc and Santa Maria being asked to approve two school bonds, each for $79 million. Both the Lompoc Union School District (LUSD) and Allan Hancock College were asking for more from us. The former was designated Measure E, the latter Measure y. 

This was the third time in two years that the LUSD has put forth a bond ballot measure. In 2016, the district promoted Measure L2016 for $65 million, which the voters rejected. In the June 2018 primary, the district promoted Measure Q for $79 million, which was also rejected.

This second 2018 bond was for $79 million was to be spent over a period of 34 years to pay for the schools’ maintenance requirements. The tax rate was $60 per $100,000 of assessed property values, higher than any bond. At payout in 2054 this bond would have cost the local property tax payers in the LUSD some $179 million with interest. The gory details of this bond were buried in “The Appendix,” way in the back of the voter ballot book. It would add on to the present Measure N bonds being paid for now by we taxpayers.

Just why would the property tax payers vote for this gigantic tax for a poorly defined slush fund to be used for leaky roofs and cleaning pipes and toilets and just about anything else as described in “The Appendix?” They should not! Shouldn’t that work be done on the present yearly school budget for maintenance?

In 2002, the voters passed Measure N for the LUSD to improve dilapidated bathrooms and to put in wiring for computer labs and fire alarms. This was a bond of $38 million, which property tax payers will be paying until maturity in 2032.

In 2002 the voters were generous and passed:

• Measure N–LUSD School bond–$38 million.

• Measure E–The Hospital Bond–$83 million.

• Measure I–The Allan Hancock School Bond–$138 million.

• The Lompoc Pool Bond–$20 million.

• The Lompoc Flood Zone Assessment–ongoing.

So Lompoc property taxpayers are presently paying on five bonds.

The proposed Measure E would have added to this cost for bonds that the citizens of the LUSD are presently paying. In other words, it will be “more,” not just an “add on” as the district was telling voters in its expensive taxpayer funded flyers used to sell this new tax. 

These new bond proposals are clearly a way around Proposition 13, which voters passed in 1978 to limit radical increases in property taxes like Measures E and Y. The yearly increase in our taxes would have been way more than the 2 percent limited by Proposition 13, if the measures had passed. 

The Hancock bond, Measure Y 2018, was $79 million for two new buildings on the Santa Maria campus, again while taxpayers are paying on the first bond passed in 2002. Hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ dollars were spent by the two school boards to convince the voters to pass the bond. 

Both bonds failed at the Nov. 6 elections despite all of this expensive advertisement.

Articles were written by reporters from the Sun and the Lompoc Record lamenting this surprising loss, but not thinking about the people who have been paying for them. In the Record article, board member Bill Heath was cited opposing E, and in the Sun, board member Dan Hilker’s opposition was cited by Hancock Superintendent Dr. Kevin Walthers as one of the reasons for the loss.

The hypocrisy of the LUSD superintendent, Travis McDonald, is that he and his assistant will not have to pay for the increased property taxes if E had passed, because neither live in the district. He wins, we lose!

We seniors are overtaxed and cannot pay more taxes on our homes just for school district needs. We supported the past taxes, but not anymore. We are on fixed incomes and you superintendents get paid big bucks for life. We opposed your new taxes and the hundreds of thousands of dollars you spent to mislead voters to vote for them. There is no limit to your spending demands and then you turn the college into a sanctuary campus for illegal aliens. And they want more tax money for that. The “poor me” article by Kasey Bubnash in the Sun referred to Dan Hilker, but he was not alone. (“Hancock president discusses future without Measure Y,” Nov. 28, 2018) Don’t you overpriced guys there get it? We taxpayers cannot afford you. 

Ann Ruhge’s earlier pre-election letter outlined the reasons we objected (“Lompoc, vote ‘no’ on Measure E,” Oct. 24, 2018). Heath was not the only reason it failed for the third time. The LUSD is not listening. Hundreds of taxpayers are against more property taxes that go on for 30 years at three times the price with interest. We recommended a smaller bond with a clear program, but what we have received three times is an overwhelming bond price and an unbelievable slush list of projects for just about anything.

The LUSD is mismanaged. The district knows it need maintenance, but instead it put all of its funds into benefits while the students get crap. As a member of the Measure N bond oversight board, I saw firsthand the deterioration that is the result of mismanagement.

These are the reasons why these proposed 2018 bonds failed.

Perhaps a less expensive, better-defined program would be more acceptable to the taxpayers than E and Y appeared to be. 

Justin Ruhge is a Lompoc resident and president of Concerned Taxpayers, Inc. Send your thoughts to letters@santamariasun.com.

This article appears in Jan 3-10, 2019.