Comments on: L.A. Times’ analysis on crazy school borrowing omits why it’s done

By: Hondo

Hondo — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 21:17:14 +0000

I hear that prop 13 dog whistle.
Hondo….

By: Rex the Wonder Dog!

Rex the Wonder Dog! — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 22:38:38 +0000

Prop 13 has done nothing, taz revenue has gone UP every year (untl recently) since prop 13 was passed, but the money all goes to salary and benefits, not facilities. Average CA student cost is $30K per year with bond issues.

By: FestivalofLight

FestivalofLight — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 21:28:36 +0000

Well, Prop.13 has completely distorted local budgets in California vastly limiting what local municipalities can do. But still, borrowing using CAB is a rather poor idea from an economic point of view and I applaud the LA Times for reporting on the practice.

By: Rex the Wonder Dog!

Rex the Wonder Dog! — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 18:04:17 +0000

In San Diego Unified, employee compensation consumes 93 percent of the budget. The norm in many school districts is 90 percent. There’s not much left for anything else.
==

It was much less 30 years ago…

By: Kevin Dayton, Labor Issues Solutions, LLC

Kevin Dayton, Labor Issues Solutions, LLC — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 17:57:04 +0000

I consider it a great victory that the Los Angeles Times reported on the practice at all. Too bad it wasn’t published BEFORE voters in 87 K-12 and community college districts in California authorized their elected boards to borrow money by selling bonds. The amount of school bond debt in this state (state and local) nowadays is incredible. Blame Prop 39 in 2000 for this situation and for the use of bond proceeds to buy iPads. (Yes, that’s legal because of language included in Prop 39.)

One of my suggestions for the California Republican Party’s alternative program of governance, under “Slow the growing debt burden on future generations,” is “Require the ballot language of bond measures to indicate the current bond debt of the government entity, estimate the total debt from the proposed bond measure (including financial transaction fees and interest), and explain that selling a bond means borrowing money and paying it back with interest through tax increases.” This would give voters an understanding of what they’re doing beyond “It’s for the kids!”