Will Santa Ana voters vote to massively increase their taxes yet again in the Nov. 5 election?

Santa Ana voters often grouse about the cost of local rents and properties yet just about every election they vote for an abundance of bond measures. The problem with doing that is when a bond measure passes you as the taxpayer are on the hook to pay it back – and the interest on these bond measures is insane!

If you borrowed $1,000 from someone and they insisted you pay them back $1,000 in interest, which is to say you would owe them $2,000 to settle the debt, would you do it? Of course not! But that is how bond measures work. Whatever the face value of the bond measure is will generate an equal amount of interest that you as the taxpayer will have to pay back.

These bond measures repayments are tacked on to your property taxes. Even if you are a renter you can rest assured that your landlord will increase your rent to pay for the increase in property taxes due to the bond measure.

Measure G – the latest ripoff bond measure from the Rancho Community College District

In the last election, in 2022, Santa Ana voters wised up and rejected Measure L, a bond measure from the greedy Rancho Santiago Community College District (RSCCD), which has already passed several bond measures. Even worse the RSCCD passes a union-only project labor agreement on each bond measure which means they can only hire union companies. That means most of these projects end up being built by union companies from Los Angeles with union labor that does not even live in Orange County! Most Orange County construction workers do not belong to unions.

The PLAs result in two things – job delays and overpayments to the union shops. This means the RSCCD ends up wasting the bond money and sure enough they keep coming back for more money. This year they are asking Santa Ana voters to pass yet another bond measure, Measure G. This is a $720,000,000 bond measure and sure enough that means the interest due if it passes will also be a whopping $720,000,000 – or 720 Million dollars. Why in the world would anyone vote for this financially irresponsbile measure that will cost us $1.4 billion dollars to pay back? Like Measure L we need to reject it and let the RSCCD know that we are tired of them ripping us off!

There is a reason why the Orange County Taxpayers Association is asking us to vote no on Measure G!

Measure I – yet another crazy SAUSD bond measure

The Santa Ana Unified School District, which has also passed several bond measures in recent years and also attaches union-only PLAs to them, is again asking Santa Ana voters to vote for yet another bond measure, Measure I.

What an insult! The SAUSD has been losing thousands of students every year as famlies move them from the failed SAUSD to local private and charter schools as well as transferring them to better school districts such as Tustin and Irvine. Why in the world would they expect us to raise our taxes yet again for a school district that every year graduates hundreds of students who cannot read or do basic math?

Measure I will borrow $355,000,000 which of course means we the taxpayers will have to pay that back as well as $355,000,000 in interest. That means we will be on the hook to pay back an incredible $710 Million dollars and of course that amount will be tacked on to our property taxes.

If approved, Measure I would be the largest school district bond ever approved in Orange County history. All to spend on land, buildings, and greedy bond investors for a school district that is quickly losing their students to better alternative schools.

Measure FF – a totally whack pay raise for the part-time Santa Ana City Council members

Even worse. the Santa Ana City Council is asking us to give them a crazy raise via Measure FF, which will pay our part-time City Council members a gigantic salary of thirty three (33%) percent of that of an Orange County Superior Court Judge. Those judges are paid in the high six figures! This is just plain nuts. If it passes Santa Ana will be sliding even quicker into bankruptcy and yes, sure enough, the City Council will again vote to raise our sales taxes to pay themselves more than most of us make.

Prop. 2 – a totally irresponsible $20 billion dollar California school bond measure

But wait, there is one more. There is another bond measure on the ballot courtesy of the State of California, Prop. 2. This is a $10 billion bond which means the interest will also be $10 billion so the taxpayers will be on the hook for $20 billion dollars. This bond is for the public schools and community colleges, most of which have already passed their own bond measures. Insane! Vote no or watch more of your tax money go down the drain.

Hopefully Santa Ana voters will wise up this year and vote No on Measures L, I,FF and Prop. 2!