The following letter to the editor was published in The Beach Reporter newspaper (TBRnews.com) on Thursday, November 1, 2012 in the Letters section. The Beach Reporter has a strict 250-word limit.
Not another bond
Are you as exasperated with yet another school bond as I am? If Measure Q passes, it will be the third bond in the last 11 years totaling a quarter of a billion dollars in property tax hikes for homeowners in Redondo Beach. For people who purchased their homes in the late 90s or within the last 12 years, you will assume an abnormally large portion of this property tax increase. People who have homes valued between $600,000 and $1 million will see very noticeable increases to your already expensive tax bill.
We will need bonds for other civic improvements in R.B. Is it really fair to our fire and police departments to extend ourselves with $253 million worth of school district bonds? They will need infrastructure improvements as well. Will we want to keep hiking our tax bill more or will we say no to other vital civic responsibilities? Can we really keep adding hundreds of millions of dollars to our property tax base every few years to make up the difference?
There comes a tipping point in every household where the bills just start to become too much. If you live in a house that is valued around the average of $750,000 in this city, you will have already added about $700 per year to your property tax bill (with the two existing school bonds, Measure E from 2000 and Measure C from 2008). If we pass this bond, you will be adding nearly $1,000 to your property tax bill in a 12-year span. It doesn’t make you a bad person for saying “enough is enough.” I’ve voted for bonds in the past, but I just cannot keep hiking up my property taxes.
Sanford Motte
Redondo Beach
El Segundo Police Officers' Association (ESPOA) Exposed