George Laase

On a gray day, I was allowed to tour the capital improvements project site at Culver City High School. It looked quite different than the last time I came to take pictures, as you can see by the accompanying updated photos.

The average local community homeowner annually pays about $300 in additional voted indebtedness for the General Obligation Bond passed in1998, Measure T ($202 until 2033) and Measure EE, our local Parcel Tax ($96 until 2014).

Second of two parts. My lifelong fiscal credo may be old-fashioned by today’s standards. Look at all of the credit and credit cards floating around, the glut of pre-approved loans being offered in mass advertising on television (“866-66 Faster... You've got the green light”). Payday loan agencies seem to be on every corner, begging to...

First of two parts. First, I hate paying interest. This feeling began in the early 1960s when I had my eye on a neat-looking electric guitar and amplifier. I started saving my money. Later, the music store had a sale. Fortunately, by that time I had enough saved to purchase the guitar at the lower price, but not enough to...

After agreeing in principle earlier this year to raises for all School District employees, the School Board is preparing to ask taxpayers to float another multi-decade, multi-million dollar bond. This, before the previous bond is paid off. We taxpayers are still in hock for $34M of Measure T’s original $40M price tag. We need to...

Are School Board members really planning to ask voter/taxpayers to renew the Measure EE parcel tax this coming election? Is the Board thinking about floating yet another multi-year, multi-million dollar bond measure this fall?

If there is one dominant reason for the distrust Californians feel for governments, it is the sense that special interests regularly pour millions of dollars into federal, state and local election campaigns while contriving to hide their identities. That reality makes Senate Bill 52, the Disclose Act sponsored by Democratic state Sens. Mark Leno of San Francisco and Jerry Hill of San Mateo County, the most important measure state lawmakers will consider this year.

I just watched a video on the Advocates for Clean Air El Marino Language School’s (A4CAEM) website showing parent Dr. Rania Sabty-Daily leading parent volunteers in taking various air samples at El Marino on Feb. 22. We can all agree with Dr. Sabty-Daily’s physical assessment when she explains to one of the parent/volunteers helping take the readings on the playground and fields that active students playing outside are “taking in more air, more frequently and more pollutants.”

During their annual budgeting, a school district usually estimates each annual expenditure on the conservative side, adding slightly to each rather than what it anticipates on spending, just to play it safe in case something unusual happens.

Our current School Board members probably felt this was going to be the last best chance to grant District employees their expected raises. All Board members chose to put District employee monetary wants above their own elected fiduciary responsibility.