Consideration of Measure K

The residents of El Centro will soon be asked to vote on two different tax increases: a school bond for Central Union High School and an increase in sales tax for the city of El Centro. However, we will vote on them at different times, I think this is a strategy being used to increase the chance that both will pass.

What we are not being told is that our current property tax bill already includes four school bonds and a Maintenance Assessment District for El Centro Elementary School District. Two of the existing bonds are for the benefit of El Centro Elementary School District, one for the benefit of Central Union High School and one for the benefit of Imperial Valley College. Collectively they add an additional $180.68 to my tax bill or 16.68 percent annually.

The Maintenance Assessment District is used by school districts to circumvent Prop 13 and has been successfully overturned in court. When a two-thirds vote was required, the burden was on the proponents to convince voters that a bond, and its accompanying property tax increase, was really needed. With the passage of Proposition 39, the requirement dropped to 55 percent requirement, and nearly all bonds passed. Seeing this, school officials can be expected to confront taxpayers with even more bonds for higher amounts, saddling homeowners with billions of dollars of additional debt.

Imperial County’s unemployment rate is nearly the highest in the U.S., according to Bureau of Labor Statistics. According to the website bestplaces.com residents in El Centro pay 14 percent more than the national average for groceries, 12 percent more for utilities, 9 percent more for health care, 11 percent more for transportation and 10 percent for miscellaneous, we don’t need our taxes raised.

The Feds have decided not to raise short-term interest rates because the economy is still struggling. You don’t raise taxes during difficult economic times, that is economics 101. BILL COLLINS El Centro