County taxpayers are the gift that keeps on giving

Never let it be said that San Mateo County taxpayers aren’t generous.

Just examine the construction bond measures that Peninsula residents have approved for their public schools from 1999 to 2019.

It’s staggering.

Over the past 20 years, local voters have given the OK to 51 bond packages designed to build, renovate and modernize schools (and equipment) in 24 districts for students in kindergarten through grade 12.

The total face value of those bonds came to $3.5 billion. Add in interest, fees and other charges and that figure ballooned to at least $7 billion.

More than half of the

K-12 bond monies ($1.9 billion) could be found in four districts: San Mateo Union High ($621.5 million), Sequoia Union High ($588 million), Jefferson Union High ($344.8 million) and San Mateo-Foster City Elementary ($323 million). With interest, fees and other charges added in, those four amounted to about $3.8 billion.

In addition, that quartet had a combined 13 bond measures approved during the 20-year period in question.

All of the data is available on the state’s Department of Education website.

Meanwhile, the county’s community college district was busy as well. The district, which operates three large campuses locally, had two more construction bonds approved during the last two decades that came to another $675 million, or at least $1.3 billion with interest, fees and associated charges.

The grand county total for all locally financed public education is well over $8 billion.

The bulk of those bonds has been given voter approval via a 55% threshold, a constitutional change agreed to by the state’s willing electorate in 2000.

And more school bonds are on the immediate election horizon.

Potentially adding to the existing self-imposed, local bond burden, there are four new bond proposals on the county’s March 3 election ballot.

They are being offered to voters by Brisbane Elementary ($27 million), Burlingame Elementary ($97 million), Jefferson Union High ($28.39 million) and San Mateo Union High ($385 million).

If all of those bonds are approved next month, they would add nearly $1 billion, including principal, interest, fees and other costs, to the combined county total since 1999.

All four measures require at least a 55% yes vote to secure approval.

Mike Spinelli

Mike Spinelli, a former Burlingame mayor, recently was honored for his extensive volunteer work in Anthem, Arizona.

A professional photographer, he and his wife, Ro Logrippo, bailed on the Peninsula and moved to Arizona some years ago. Both are former employees at the now-defunct San Mateo Times.

Spinelli, who served with the Air Force during the Vietnam War, was nominated for congressional recognition for his decades of service to his community and country and to military veterans.

The announcement was made during a military ball in Anthem.

Dad’s Luncheonette

It’s not often that a Half Moon Bay dining establishment receives a big thumbs-up in the national media.

But that’s what occurred last month in The Wall Street Journal when the publication, in print and online, recommended the fresh fare at Dad’s Luncheonette on Highway 1 in that town.

The menu is limited to eight items, and the grassfed beef burger was given particularly high marks.

The quaint diner is located in a railroad car, a renovated caboose, not far from the Highway 92 intersection.