School Bond Measures Depend on a Willingness to Add Debt

February 23, 2004

By Jean Merl
Times Staff Writer
February 22, 2004

Will California voters' traditional strong support for schools outweigh their squeamishness over taking on more debt?
The coalitions of civic, business and education leaders who are pushing for two multibillion-dollar campus facilities bond measures — one statewide, one for the Los Angeles Unified School District — on the March 2 ballot hope so.

The somewhat-overlapping coalitions are stumping for Proposition 55, a $12.3-billion proposal to help modernize and expand aging school, college and university campuses throughout California, and for Measure R, a $3.87-billion measure for schools in Los Angeles Unified.

Los Angeles school officials said their measure would allow them to nearly finish a massive building and campus renovation program aimed at ending students' long bus trips from overcrowded neighborhoods and to return many multitrack, year-round schools to traditional calendars.

Both education measures were placed on the ballots before Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's $15-billion bond proposal to help the state out of its fiscal crisis. Now some analysts say the convergence could possibly hurt all three propositions.

"That's a lot of money on one ballot," said Mark Baldassare, research director for the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California.

"Add to that the fact that we have been picking up in our polling this year that people are becoming more cautious about borrowing, and it's a big challenge" for bond measure proponents, Baldassare said.

Another risk for spending fatigue is that the measures come less than two years since voters approved other huge bond issues for schools statewide and in Los Angeles.

The upcoming state school bond — which, like other measures on the state ballot, needs 50% of the vote to pass — looks like a squeaker, according to several independent surveys. In a Public Policy Institute of California poll released Friday, 49% of likely voters said they would vote for it, while 36% said no and 15% were undecided.

The poll, which has a sampling margin of error of 2 percentage points, is similar to the results of an institute survey done in January and to a Field Poll, also taken last month.
The Los Angeles measure needs 55% of the vote to pass. The district's last bond measure, for $3.3 billion, garnered 68% of the votes in November 2002. At the same time, the last state education bond, for $13 billion, won 58.9% of vote.

Kam Kuwata, a veteran Democratic strategist who is overseeing the Yes on 55 campaign, is counting on tapping such historic support for schools.

"Kids should not have to go to class in schools that are not safe, crowded, leaky and where the plumbing doesn't work," Kuwata said. "We think voters believe that."

He said the Yes on 55 campaign complements the Los Angeles school bond because local districts can get matching funds from the state bond.

"We try to present the message that if you are in favor of local schools and helping kids, you need to support both," Kuwata said.
Proposition 55 would set aside $10 billion for community colleges and the Cal State and University of California systems. If it fails next month, it automatically shifts to the November ballot.

The state school bond would be repaid from state general funds; the state legislative analyst's office estimates Proposition 55 would cost about $823 million annually for 30 years in principal and interest.

Local bonds, in contrast, are repaid through additions to property tax bills. Los Angeles' Measure R would cost property owners up to $60 a year for each $100,000 of assessed property value. That would be in addition to about $100 per year per $100,000 in value to fund the two previous bond measures over the last seven years.
Proposition 55 opponents, including state Sen. Rico Oller (R-San Andreas), the National Tax-Limitation Committee and the 60-Plus Assn., said it would cost too much and take away from other state services. They said construction money should be in the state budget each year.

The campaign for Proposition 55 is largely financed by education groups, especially the California Teachers Assn. At least $7 million has been raised to date, Kuwata said.

Its supporters include Richard Riordan, the former Los Angeles mayor who is now education secretary, and Schwarzenegger, who is, however, not campaigning for it because he is concentrating on the ballot measures to close the deficit. Also supporting it are the California Chamber of Commerce, League of Women Voters and California Taxpayers Assn.

In Los Angeles, proponents see Measure R and the building program it would continue as part of a package of reforms that have helped raise student achievement in recent years.

"This will allow us to continue our tremendous progress," said Jose Huizar, school board president.

With the $5.7 billion garnered from the previous two bond measures, the 750,000-student district has embarked on a massive building and renovation program aimed at making up for three decades of virtually no major repairs or new construction. Seven new schools and 12 classroom additions have been completed, with 70 more projects under construction; almost 10,000 repair projects are completed or underway. After some overspending problems with the 1997 measure, the jobs now are getting done on average almost 6% under budget, the citizens bond oversight committee said.

The debacle over the unfinished Belmont Learning Complex near downtown still raises some suspicions, however. Six years and $175 million since construction began, the school board last year voted to put another $111 million into completing the troubled high school and solve its environmental and seismic problems. Most of the new Belmont spending is to come from developers' fees, not from the bond proceeds.

Measure R would add about 49,000 seats in about 50 new schools, provide space for full-day kindergarten, make repairs and strengthen school police dispatch operations. It would earmark $20 million to build charter schools (the district would own the facilities occupied by the autonomous schools).

Measure R's long list of endorsers includes numerous state elected officials, Mayor James K. Hahn, former Mayor Riordan, Los Angeles Controller Laura Chick, Los Angeles City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo and Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca. Organizations backing the measure include the League of Women Voters, Greater Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, Los Angeles County Federation of Labor and Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

Consultant Darry Sragow said the campaign has raised more than $1 million of its $1.75-million goal, much of which will be spent on targeted mail and telephoning. The California Teachers Assn. kicked in almost $125,000, and United Teachers Los Angeles contributed more than $50,000. In addition, UTLA spent another $25,000 on its own radio advertising.

Opponents, including the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn. and United Organization of Taxpayers, do not appear to be raising funds for a campaign. In ballot measure statements, however, they say that earlier state and local bond debts are already burdening taxpayers. They say there is no certainty that the projected school population increase will materialize and that L.A. Unified should use the money from previous bond measures before asking for more.

Sragow, who is working on Measure R and the governor's bond proposal, said the Los Angeles campaign's polling shows it passing. "But we're not being complacent in this very, very uncertain environment," he said, noting that polls show that large numbers of voters are undecided on all three bond measures.
"Voters have a much more complicated series of decisions to make now," Sragow said. "It's not just do they need it and will they spend it wisely, it's also can we afford it at this time."
Besides Los Angeles, about 60 other school districts around California are asking voters for facilities bond measures — and hoping for added funds from a successful Proposition 55.

In November 2000, California voters made it easier for local school districts to pass bond measures by lowering the threshold from two-thirds to 55%. Since then, according to the consulting firm School Services of California, 196 school bond measures have gone to voters in districts throughout California. Of those, 173 won approval.

Link: Link to L.A. Times Aricle