On March 3, Cabrillo College is asking voters to authorize the sale of $274.1 million in general obligation bonds.
Supporters and opponents of Measure R aim to persuade voters with signs along Soquel Drive. • Photo credit: Jondi Gumz
Cabrillo estimates property owners would be assessed up to $18.85 per $100,000 of assessed valuation each year for 32 years to repay the principal and interested pegged at $569 million.
Michael Watkins, retired superintendent of county schools, Sheriff Jim Hart, Nancy Macy, co-founder, Valley Women’s Club, Diana Alfaro, County of Santa Cruz Latino Affairs Commissioner, and Francisco Estrada, Pajaro Valley Community Health Trust program officer, signed this ballot argument supporting Measure R.
Argument for:
Have you ever taken classes at Cabrillo College — or know family or friends who have?
Cabrillo has 60 years of success serving our community, whether your goal is job preparation, continuing education, English as a second language or transferring to a UC or another four-year college. Today, Cabrillo College’s future is at risk.
Drive along Soquel Avenue and you see the newest and nicest buildings on the Cabrillo campus — the result of past bond measures.
But take a campus tour and you’ll find that chronic state underfunding is negatively impacting the quality of education students receive.
Many buildings are inadequate to meet the needs of our students in a changing world. When a sewer line broke recently, it created a hundred thousand dollars worth of damage.
The State provides no funding to update aging buildings – and some of them remain untouched for 50 years. That’s why we need Measure R.
A new science building to meet student needs for critical high-demand gateway lab-based classes
Upgraded classrooms to give students training for 21st-century careers
Providing students the tools to transfer to four-year universities
Giving returning veterans the educational resources to prepare for the workforce
Training local firefighters and police at a new Watsonville public safety training center
Allowing people with disabilities greater access to college classrooms
Modernizing aging classrooms, upgrading technology and replacing outdated wiring and sewer lines
Cabrillo College has also refinanced prior bonds, saving the average homeowner $164 and taxpayers $29.5 million in total.
Measure R has the unified support of Cabrillo College’s trustees, faculty senate and labor unions.
State Senator Bill Monning, Assemblymember Mark Stone and Supervisors Bruce McPherson, Ryan Coonerty and John Leopold all support Measure R.
Call (831) 479-6302 to tour the Cabrillo College campus yourself to assess the need. See the expenditure plan at www.CabrilloYESonR.org.
Argument against:
This ballot argument against Measure R was signed by Kris A. Kirby, Aptos small business owner, Capitola senior Carmen Bernal, Watsonville homeowner Gladys Jimenez, and Aptos homeowner William R. Menefee.
We urge you to Vote No on Cabrillo College’s attempt at yet another money grab of $274,100,000, requiring payments of approx. $550,000,000 at the end of 30 years of economic uncertainty.
Measure R is yet another tax for 30 years. Cabrillo College currently has two bonds (taxes) that all commercial and residential property owners are still paying. One will tax you another 20 years (until 2039) and the other until 2024.
Measure R does not exempt Seniors, who are already struggling to stay in their homes. Landlords will pass this tax onto their renters, causing rents to go higher.
Cabrillo College enrollment numbers are flat and declining at the rate of about 20%. However, this bond would not build any on-campus housing to encourage or support Cabrillo College students or staff and thereby boost enrollment, as several other Community Colleges have done successfully in California.
This bond debt burden would spend $23 million to buy more land in Watsonville to create a new Fire and Police Training Facility. This is unnecessary and misguided when the main Cabrillo Campus enrollment is declining and facilities are not used.
Further, most students who would graduate in this field will most likely leave the area either because the pay is better in other counties, or they cannot afford the high cost of housing here. You will be burdened with debt but the professionals trained will be elsewhere.
Why hasn’t Cabrillo College budgeted money for building maintenance? Where has all of the money provided by other bonds gone?
Can you and your family really afford more debt that will last for 30 years, with an uncertain economic future on the horizon? You have to live on a budget, why can’t Cabrillo College do so as well?