LTCC Board endorses Prop 51 School Facility Bond measure

The Board of Trustees at Lake Tahoe Community College has fully thrown its support behind a $9 billion bond measure on the November 8 ballot, called Proposition 51: Public School Facility Bonds, which would provide funds for public school construction and repairs in California.

State money for K-12 schools and community college construction and repair projects ran out four years ago. While not completely solving the problem, Prop 51 represents an important first down payment on what K-12 and community college districts in the state will need to build new facilities and to keep up with repairs on older ones. Currently, there is a $2 billion backlog in requests for state construction money, and another $29 billion in school construction projects is expected over the next decade.

Prop 51 would allocate $3 billion to new K-12 school construction, $3 billion to modernizing public school facilities, $1 billion to charter schools and vocational education facilities, and $2 billion to community college facilities. California now pays about $2.4 billion annually in debt payments on general obligation bonds for school construction supported by voters. Prop. 51 would add $500 million to that debt, according to California’s Legislative Analyst’s Office. Taxpayers can expect to pay about $8.6 billion in interest before the $9 billion bond is paid off in 35 years.

With taxpayers’ support, Lake Tahoe Community College won a $55 million bond measure, called Measure F, in November 2014. From the beginning, college leadership and LTCC’s Board of Trustees planned to leverage that $55 million into substantially more dollars by seeking matching construction dollars from the state.

“If Prop 51 passes in November, then LTCC has an excellent chance of leveraging our local taxpayers’ investment in the campus through matching state funds,” said LTCC Superintendent/President Dr. Kindred Murillo. “That will greatly enhance our ability to improve student success and provide the kind of modern facilities our students want and expect.”

For more information about Proposition 51, please contact LTCC’s Superintendent/President’s Office at (530) 541-4660 ext. 210.