Argument Against Measure R
We urge you to Vote No on Cabrillo College's attempt at yet another money grab of $274,100,000, requiring payments of approx. $550,000,000 at the end of 30 years of economic uncertainty.
- Measure R is yet another tax for 30 years. Cabrillo College currently has two bonds (taxes) that all commercial and residential property owners are still paying. One will tax you another 20 years (until 2039) and the other until 2024.
- Measure R does not exempt Seniors, who are already struggling to stay in their homes. Landlords will pass this tax onto their renters, causing rents to go higher.
- Cabrillo College enrollment numbers are flat and declining at the rate of about 20%. However, this bond would not build any on-campus housing to encourage or support Cabrillo College students or staff and thereby boost enrollment, as several other Community Colleges have done successfully in California.
- This bond debt burden would spend $23 million to buy more land in Watsonville to create a new Fire and Police Training Facility. This is unnecessary and misguided when the main Cabrillo Campus enrollment is declining and facilities are not used. Further, most students who would graduate in this field will most likely leave the area either because the pay is better in other counties, or they cannot afford the high cost of housing here. You will be burdened with debt but the professionals trained will be elsewhere.
- Why hasn’t Cabrillo College budgeted money for building maintenance? Where has all of the money provided by other bonds gone?
- Can you and your family really afford more debt that will last for 30 years, with an uncertain economic future on the horizon? You have to live on a budget, why can’t Cabrillo College do so as well?
NO MORE TAXES!
PLEASE VOTE NO ON MEASURE
Kris A. Kirby
Small Business Owner/Aptos
Carmen Bernal
Senior/Capitola
Gladys Jimenez
Homeowner/Watsonville
William R. Menefee
Homeowner/Aptos