Open Thread: 2 Weeks 2 Go! So Let’s Talk Bonds!

By
Greg Diamond
– October 23, 2024Posted in: "The OC", 2024 elections, Fresh Juice

Election Day is two weeks from yesterday. I’m still stuck working on my big case for another week, but we just can’t wait that long for another Open Thread!

Eventually what I’m writing about today will make it into the Everything About Elections post, but I’ll put them here because it’s a more visible venue. I didn’t get to the Local initiatives, but they’re pretty easy. With some exceptions like Stanton’s measure, they’re almost all bond measures. So let’s talk bonds.

Anaheim (James) Bonds
In 2014, when we introduced this image, the caption was: “Making Deadly Bonds More Interesting: Did you know that they have a ‘License to Kill’ … Anaheim’s General Fund?” Of course later they found new ways to do that.

Bonds are generally not a great way to raise money, although municipal bonds are going to be a bit overvalued because investors receive favorable tax treatment when they buy them. The strongest argument against a given bond measure comes when they are to be used for present benefits with the costs being shunted forward to future residents. For example, if you proposed a bond that would pay higher salaries for more teachers and public safety workers (police and fire), you’re just being a jerk. Those advantages accrue to us, now, and we — not future residents — should be the ones to pay for them. (And of course, bonds generally establish their domain as a high priority — which may not be so.)

But: when bonds are offered to serve future residents more than current ones, I believe that they do have a rightful place, presuming that the money is being borrowed for something legitimately compelling. (I encourage those such as Zenger, who find even those measures suspect, to disagree here.) A bond to build and repair school buildings, for which a city may never be able to put aside enough money in its current budget, mainly serves people from about 1-31 years from now. (Except for the Building Trades, who get their benefits sooner.) Avoiding dangerously outdated and worn school infrastructure is something for which we would expect future residents to thank us for our foresight. As I recall, most of these measures are school bonds: I’m voting for mine, Measure H, in Brea, where I expect it to raise my rent a bit, and I hope that residents of Fullerton will vote for theirs, and I would generally go along with others (except where I really distrust a school board, like Placentia/Yorba Linda if they can’t rid themselves of Leandra Blades, who for all I know might want to spend the bond money on munitions.)

So if you must vote before I return here next Wednesday to offer with my final recommendations — that is how I’d plan to vote. But let’s remember: a school bond election season is a great time to recall the need for charter school reform — because present policies are way too generous to those who want to sap the public school system, both for personal profit and because they actively want to undermine it. (Who will take the lead on that? Maybe some Assembly member or State Senator in their last term?)

I look forward to people who have time to look under the hood of their local measures and say whether they think that the wish lists are legitimate priorities to chime in with details on why that is.

So: we’ve got an Open Thread! So talk about this or whatever else you’d like, within reasonable bounds of discretion and decorum. Specific election questions for me to tackle earlier are encouraged!

A note on Special Neshanian rules: Eric, in a given post, you get three top level comments max, max of three links in each post. No additional links in your responses. Don’t game the system and we’ll get along fine. Ex post facto restrictions on your comments may be imposed and may include attainder. Good luck!

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About Greg Diamond

Somewhat verbose attorney, semi-disabled and semi-retired, residing in northwest Brea. Occasionally ran for office against jerks who otherwise would have gonr unopposed. Got 45% of the vote against Bob Huff for State Senate in 2012; Josh Newman then won the seat in 2016. In 2014 became the first attorney to challenge OCDA Tony Rackauckas since 2002; Todd Spitzer then won that seat in 2018. Every time he's run against some rotten incumbent, the *next* person to challenge them wins! He's OK with that. Corrupt party hacks hate him. He's OK with that too. He does advise some local campaigns informally and (so far) without compensation. (If that last bit changes, he will declare the interest.) His daughter is a professional campaign treasurer. He doesn't usually know whom she and her firm represent. Whether they do so never influences his endorsements or coverage. (He does have his own strong opinions.) But when he does check campaign finance forms, he is often happily surprised to learn that good candidates he respects often DO hire her firm. (Maybe bad ones are scared off by his relationship with her, but they needn't be.)