By Jennifer Polhemus
Voting against an education bond is not something to take lightly. Measure U has been endorsed by many education supporters, people and organizations with which I typically agree. But is this an education bond, or a development bond? The funds may be used only for buildings or property acquisition, both of which will have an impact on our crowded community.
My reasons for voting no are: • SMC is a valuable resource for our community. Fortunately for all of us, it is a very successful college. But how much more do we want it to grow? If you live, work, or visit near one of the SMC campuses, you already know first-hand that SMC has not been accountable for the effects of its growth and commuter traffic. Not only has the original campus expanded to multiple sites in Santa Monica, now a new campus is proposed to be located in Los Angeles. SMC already has over 30,000 students. How can the surrounding community possibly sustain more growth? • Taxes work best when there is a nexus between the tax and the economic activity at issue. This is not the case with Measure U. It will increase taxes for Santa Monica/Malibu property only, in order to provide funds for expansion of a regional college. This has been likened to the folly of taxing Westwood residents to build a new science building at UCLA. SMC’s authority to raise funds through a local bond measure is a remnant of the “city” colleges of many years ago, when only students in a community college’s own district attended that college. Given current open enrollment policies, is taxing its neighbors an appropriate way to fund SMC? • The community has many needs — directly related to its residents — particularly K-12 education and parks. The city council and school board are already talking about bonds to bring before the voters in the near future. Given that the voters have a limit in terms of the property taxes they will approve, should we be using it up for this $160 million bond measure? • SMC is a great institution. But sometimes such institutions have bad ideas. For more information, please visit http://home.adelphia.net/~tigler/No- U/pages/others.html. (Jennifer Polhemus is an economist and education researcher. She is a former Santa Monica planning commissioner).
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 2, 2002. Read the original PDF.