By Cary Anderson
Today is the big day in Culver City. Probably 20 percent of registered voters will decide on Measure CC. They will determine if they and the rest homeowners or rental landlords will be saddled with a quarter-billion dollar debt on $106 million in bonds.
Years ago the threshold for voting was lowered to 55 percent of ballots need to pass a measure.
From the sample ballot: “Any bonds issued pursuant to the Education Code shall have a maturity not exceeding 25 years, and any bonds issued pursuant to the Government Code shall have a maturity not exceeding 40 years.”
This measure is basically counting on gentrification. Let us use 30 years as a basic number. In 30 years, my Dad would be 116, my Mom, 105. My mother-in-law will be 115. Not likely they will be paying this tax. This is a tax counting on the deaths of seniors. The future homeowners and landlords paying a high tax rate will have to make up for the years of interest-only payments the bonds will be paid with.
My neighbor had lived in her house since the 1950s. The husband died and the wife moved out of state to live with family. A new family moved in in 2007. If the measure passes, my neighbor’s property tax bill will go up $446.40. For perspective, they are currently paying the normal Unified School Direct Assessment of $292.11 plus a fixed parcel tax of $96 that passed with around 20 percent voter turnout a few years ago. With their current CCUSD tax of $388.11, the CCUSD has allowed the Natatorium to rot since July 1991. Their four sons never would have been able to use the Natatorium. Will their $834.51(with Measure CC included) fix the Natatorium? Even if Measure CC passes, the Natatorium, as one School Board member said, is an albatross for the School District. An albatross is a source of frustration or guilt, an encumbrance. Will Measure CC money fix the Natatorium? Not likely. Pictures of the inside have been used to promote Measure CC. The building has been neglected since July 1991. Who is being held accountable for that? The CCUSD will have to “study” what to do with the building. Want to know what the CCUSD really plans to do?
“While the example below reflects a renovation concept of an instructional, multi-purpose learning space, no decisions have been made about the future use of this facility.” I think that is bull. They are going to wipe the Natatorium from the face of the earth. This poster child of neglect will vanish. They will hope people forget it ever was built and then left to rot.
Source: http://www.culvercitykids.org/images/school_sites/other.pdf
After not budgeting for general maintenance, the CCUSD is now asking for money? After reading George Laase’s essay yesterday titled “Past Hoarding Is Haunting Us,” I was shocked. http://www.thefrontpageonline.com/new/articles1-14718/PastHoardingIsHauntingUs
The embattled Clippers owner has been said to be a slumlord. Being a billionaire he has skimped on general maintenance on some of his properties. The CCUSD has neglected maintenance. How are the two the same? The people who could afford it did not live in the neglected properties. The people who can afford it don’t send their children to CCUSD schools. They pay taxes, but they choose to send their children to schools that do not hoard money only to neglect general maintenance. Of four homes within one block of a CCUSD school, at one time the parents of all 11 kids paid their property taxes and chose to send their children to schools that budgeted for maintenance. The children’s schools also have had “Technology for 21st Century Learning” since kindergarten.
What is the difference between public and private? Private has to compete and budget to keep people. Public does not. They can just ask others to pay for their albatrosses.
Mr. Anderson may be contacted at cary@culvercity.tv
