Sep 4 2016
OPINION: No on Piedmont Measure H1 School Bonds
East Bay Times Editorial states:
“After voters soundly rejected the district’s 2014 bond plan, they now face one four times as large. This $66 million proposal is a vast overreach.
“Piedmont’s existing special school taxes — added to the base 1 percent property tax — dwarf others in the East Bay.
“Measure H1 would drive that annual cost to $4,260. Even for wealthy Piedmont, this is off the charts. The district must inject fiscal reality into its plans.”
A recent editorial in the East Bay Times may be generating some confusion about Measure H1, a bond measure to renovate antiquated school facilities that will be on the November 8, 2016 ballot. If approved, Measure H1 will address critical repair and renovation needs in the Piedmont Schools.
Previous facilities work has focused primarily on the elementary schools and seismic safety repairs. It’s now time to focus on Piedmont High School and Piedmont Middle School, which were built more than 40 years ago. Investment in these schools is now overdue and unavoidable, as they have antiquated mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems that have reached the end of their useful life. These systems are inefficient and expensive to operate, and require either overhaul or replacement. Modernization of facilities is also needed to keep pace with surrounding public and private schools, which are investing millions of dollars in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) facilities.
In addition, the middle and high schools do not have a sufficient number of classrooms to support current and projected enrollment, so more classrooms are needed. Similarly, educational standards for kindergarten are expanding and additional classrooms are needed to meet these standards.
The Piedmont school district is grateful for the strong financial support from the community and in turn manages its finances with great care. For example, the district completed the 2006 bond program to seismically strengthen and modernize the three elementary schools on time and under budget, with high public approval of the completed projects. The district and its citizen steering committee deftly stewarded the public funds, with excellent construction management, value engineering, and cost containment, by leveraging State and private funds, and by refinancing bonds to save the Piedmont taxpayers money.
Measure H1 would raise up to $66 million to improve and modernize facilities to support and enhance our educational programs. If H1 is approved, taxpayers would pay an additional $60 per year per $100,000 of the assessed value (not market value) of their Piedmont home to repay this bond. The assessed value is generally much lower than the current market value. Starting in 2019, bonds issued in 1994 and 1996 will be retired and the overall tax bill will begin to decrease. For example, in 2021, the aggregate school facilities tax would be $274 less per year than current levels for the median-value Piedmont home.
Delaying facility improvements would hinder our educational goals and only increase future costs due to construction cost escalation.
For more information on Measure H1, please visit www.piedmont.k12.ca.us and http://www.supportpiedmontschools.org.
Sincerely, Andrea Swenson
President, PUSD Board of Education
The East Bay Times editorial suffers from two major flaws.
First, it utterly fails to consider the need to upgrade Piedmont’s schools to provide our children with an excellent education. The School District went through an exhaustive Facilities Master Planning process, developing Educational Specifications to identify what facilities are needed to educate our children in light of changing curriculum and skills, and a Facilities Assessment, to see where our facilities fell short of what is needed. By failing to even consider the need for the work funded by Measure H1, the East Bay Times suggests that our children’s education is not important if it “costs too much.”
Second, the East Bay Times editorial misrepresents the financial impact of Measure H1. As an initial matter, the tax rate to re-pay the bonds cannot exceed $60 per $100,000 of a home’s assessed value. Under Proposition 13, the assessed value is almost always less than the market value (you can find it on your property tax bill). The estimated tax to re-pay the Measure H1 bonds on a median assessed value home in Piedmont ($912,000) would be app. $535 in 2017, and decrease a bit until repaid.
Rather than consider the cost of Measure H1 against the need for the work it will fund, the editorial looks at the cumulative burden of all school-related taxes, including the parcel tax (for ongoing operations) and bond measures (for capital improvements). It first understates the current tax burden, contending that the parcel tax ($2406 per parcel) plus past bonds on the median home amounts to $2,940. In fact, that amount is app. $3726. By failing to properly perform the math, the editorial grossly overstates the impact of Measure H1.
Further, the editorial fails to reveal an important fact (even though the District provided the East Bay Times with the information). Existing 1994 and 1996 school bonds are paid off in 2018 and 2020. As a result, the cumulative tax burden for school bonds will drop in 2021, from app. $204 per $100,000 of assessed value, to app. $116 per $100,000 of assessed value. For the median assessed value home, that means a drop of app. $798 per year in school taxes in 2021.
In sum, the East Bay Times editorial should be given no weight because it: (1) fails to consider the needs of Piedmont schools and the Piedmont community’s commitment to educational excellence; (2) commits a math error that makes its analysis misleading; and (3) fails to reveal the actual cost of Measure H1 and the future tax rates for school bonds, thus misinforming the public.
Rick Raushenbush, Piedmont School Board Member
The editorial fails to reveal an important fact (even though the District provided the East Bay Times with the information). Existing 1994 and 1996 school bonds are paid off in 2018 and 2020. As a result, even with Measure H1, the cumulative tax burden for school bonds will drop in 2021, from app. $204 per $100,000 of assessed value, to app. $116 per $100,000 of assessed value. For the median assessed value home, that means a drop of app. $798 per year in school taxes in 2021 even assuming that Measure H1 is approved.