As the Westminster School District drives their mightily funded engine toward the goal line of winning voter approval to spend $130,000,000 ($130 MILLION) dollars on 71 projects that are not even guaranteed for completion,  a handful of residents are trying to get the word out of just what the circumstances are.  Two years ago (2006) in a flier sent to residents by the teachers association in support of the election of Mary Mangold (now President of WSD BOD), David Bridgewaters and Andrew Nguyen, they stated that " Our schools are all modernized, extremely well-maintained and safe".  What happened in two years?

More importantly, let's take a look at "who" is funding this engine to pass Measure O and increase the taxes in Westminster...who is giving the "Yes on Measure O - Westminster School District" handsome checks for $10,000, $20,0000 and $25,000 at a time?


Most recently, Piper Jaffray, is a law firm that gave the Westminster School District (WSD) $25,000, they indicate on their web site: "In 2006, our team completed 180 long-term bond issues for school district needs nationwide, providing $2.48 billion in financing. We serve School Districts as both a bond underwriter and a financial adviser".  Reading Piper Jaffray's financial position at this point is like looking at a train wreck. Try their website and see if you like the losses they are incurring: http://www.piperjaffray.com/1col.aspx?id=287&releaseid=1209813

Let's look at more of the large donations in the attempt to deliver another train wreck to taxpayers in Westminster:

California Financial in Mission Viejo donated $10,000 - they help schools develop "acceptable" bonds otherwise called "taxpayer friendly tax structures to increase voter acceptance for a bond measure".

NTD Architecture in San Diego gave $20,000.  NTD is a "leading provider of comprehensive architecture services to Education, Healthcare and Civic Institutions" as stated on their website.

Most donations with few exceptions are from companies, unions or individuals that don't even live within the school district boundaries and will NOT, therefore, be hit with this tax increase.

Looking at the Governor's recently signed budget you see that it funds the Proposition 98 guarantee at $58.1 billion, which is $1.5 billion higher than last year's funding.  It eliminated the proposed reductions in the Governor's May Revision and maintains funding to base categorical programs such as class size reduction, special education, child nutrition programs and child care.

With a $16 million dollar reserve; and recent loans for over $25 Million dollars for  "technology support, capital infrastructure and various capital facilities projects"; and after a recent article in the OCR which investigated how bonds are actually spent after they are passed; this is one that gives this writer "heartburn II".

NO on bond issues is a safer bet, and especially this one.  This is a "David and Goliath" contest if ever there was one.  There is no organized group or PAC or committee fighting the Massive Measure O.  Just a growing number of grassroots efforts from random individuals who take small amounts of money from their own pockets and buy astro-bright colored cardboard and with paint or waterproof markers are making hand-made signs in numbers imminently smaller than the number of Yes on O signs; attaching them to fences randomly, and printing some fliers and delivering them randomly to doorsteps in Westminster.  There are no large donations of cash flowing in to help the fight against the single largest bond issue ever asked of voters in Westminster.

But there are dedicated "David's" with sling in hand and rocks of information that are being slung for the voters in Westminster to get a look at what the underdog "NO on O" is trying to impart.  This tax increase will affect young families trying to hold on to their homes; it will affect senior citizens trying to hold on to their homes.  And it will affect the middle class which in these economically precarious times are watching every penny to keep afloat.

Not a good time for such a huge bond issue.  Perhaps a couple of years ago when they were only asking for $60 million they should have done it - when housing prices were up, the market was bullish and a recession wasn't looming in our faces.  When Presidential candidates with leading numbers weren't talking about a redistribution of wealth, this could have had a much better appeal.

Hopefully this Measure O will fail.  If the school district really needs money? and that is a question that has few, and evasive answers, then in a couple of years when the economy has recovered and we know how much of our "wealth" has been redistributed (should the worse happen and a Democrat be elected to the White House), the voters might reconsider.  But shame on the WSD for asking the citizens of Westminster (one of the lower income cities in the county) for the largest bond issue in the history of the city; and the largest bond issue of any of the 5 schools currently asking for bond issues.

In the meantime, if O passes, please remember the names of those who contributed to it and remember that with few, (I think two) exceptions, none of the people contributing to its promotion will even be affected by the increase in taxes.  Further, by the time the "improvements" which would be funded by measure O are implemented, many of the children that currently attend the K-8 will have moved on to high school or graduated.