The email has been everywhere. It’s at the center of the campaign against San Diego Unified’s School District’s Proposition Z, a measure asking the voters for additional financing for capital improvements and repairs to school properties.
The headline screams “School Board is Buying iPads for $2,500, New San Diego County Taxpayers Association Analysis Shows”. We’re quickly told that SDUSD “is using 40-year Capital Appreciation Bonds, the same risky, long-term financing notoriously used by the Poway Unified School District.” Without skipping a beat we’re breathlessly told that every dollar spent by the Board will cost taxpayers seven dollars.
But what the “No on Z” people (who are basically the same as the Taxpayers Association) aren’t telling us about is the role that they played in approving this “risky financing”. Or that the financing deal really isn’t the same as Poway’s. And that there’s a really big “IF” underlying their financial assumptions. [Read more…]