Alisal Union School District Bond Measure – Salinas Taxpayers Association Opposes Measure M (November 2016)

Below are the official primary opposition argument and the official rebuttal opposition argument in the Monterey County Official Voter Guide to Measure M, authorizing the Alisal Union School District (based in Salinas) to borrow $70,000,000 from investors via bond sales for construction.

Primary Argument Against Measure M (Alisal Union School District)

We at the Salinas Taxpayers Association are concerned that Alisal Union School District is taking on too much debt by asking you to vote to let it borrow $70,000,000 from bond investors.

Do you know why 66.67% of people in the Alisal Union School District must vote Yes on

Measure M in order to pass it?

It’s because the debt for borrowing $70 million is TOO HIGH to be allowed by state law to pass with 55%.

Very few school districts in California have wanted to borrow so much money that they need to get 66.67% of voters to vote Yes.

The last school district that tried was the Vallejo City Unified School District in 2014. But people  who lived there rejected the school district’s request to be allowed to take on so much debt.

You may not know that the Alisal Union School District has asked the State Board of Education two times to take on more debt than allowed by state law. The Board of Education waived the debt limit for the school district in 2005 and 2008.

Are you going to give permission for yet more debt and more borrowing in 2016?

We all know the bad things that happen when someone borrows too much money and can’t pay it back. You tell your friends to watch their money, but they ignore you and keep putting things on their credit cards.

Alisal Union School District is asking you to let it borrow too much money. If it had a credit card, you might say “it’s time to cut it up.”

Because there isn’t a credit card to cut up, what you should do is vote NO on Measure M.

Rebuttal Argument Against Measure M (Alisal Union School District)

You don’t have to agree with everything your community leaders say and do.

If they say something is good for you, ask them to prove it by answering some questions:

  1. Why do almost all of the other school districts in California ask people to pass bond measures at 55%, but Alisal Union School District wants so much money that it needs 66.67% of the vote?
  2. Why are we going to borrow $70,000,000 instead of $30,000,000 or $35,000,000?
  3. Why are we borrowing so much money that we’re going above the debt limit in law for bond measures that can pass with 55% of the vote?

No one is saying that schools in the Alisal Union School District don’t need any work.

But that $70,000,000 is BORROWED money. It is DEBT.

It has to be PAID BACK to bond investors. With INTEREST.

The amount your school district wants to borrow is so high that state law requires 66.67% of the vote to pass it instead of 55%.

That $70,000,000 needs to come back to voters in 2018 at a lower amount.

Would you let your friends or family use a credit card that allowed you to borrow a higher amount than everyone else can borrow?

Vote NO on Measure M.