Taxpayers of Santa Monica and Malibu should not approve another bond issue for Santa Monica College (SMC). SMC is a state-funded educational institution. It advertises all over California, the country, and the world. Fully 75% of the 32,000 plus students do not live in Santa Monica or Malibu. Why should local residents fund facilities for an institution that primarily serves non-local students. Santa Monica and Malibu residents approved a $160 million bond measure for SMC facilities just two years ago. We were told that after Measure U, there would not be another bond issue for decades. Two years is a short decade!
SMC has spent only 1/4 of the bond money from Measure U. About $120 million remain, and college administrators cannot tell us, in detail, what it will be used for. Why should voters approve measure S when funds are still available from the last bond measure? Measures U and S would total $295 million, and it would place an unfair tax burden of $3,000 on each Santa Monica and Malibu resident.
With this bond measure, SMC will further expand and bring in more students, traffic, pollution and parking problems. SMC administrators deserve credit for building an excellent educational institution, which serves an ever-increasing segment of outside areas. Many of us have taken classes at the college. But the whole region should fund such a regional institution, not just the city in which it is located. Residents of Westwood do not fund UCLA. It’s a state institution and gets its funding from the state. Community colleges are the first tier of higher education in the state college system, along with CSU and UC.
In the current tight economic situation, local bond measures are the wrong way to fund SMC’s wish list for non-essentials.
Say “no” to Measure S. Don’t support more traffic congestion, pollution and parking problems. Say “no” to a yearly tax increase of $250 per $1 million assessed property value, for 40 years.
Regula K. Ziegler