I tried to stay away from DEIA in the article but it is their biggest priority. They spend millions on it with out blinking and with zero oversight. Trustee Jonathan Abboud told me “There is no amount of money that is too much to spend on anti racism” when I asked about a huge no bid contract they were giving to a DEIA Trainer for teachers.
"Verdict Rendered Against District for Sexual Abuse and Grooming of Students by Former Employee and Football Coach"
Welcome to DEI Santa Barbara where you to can have the privildge of having your Children Sexually Abused, Physically Abused and Emotionally Abused in-fact-all-in-one.
The New Title to this Article is "SAY HELL NO TO ABUSE OF OUR CHILDREN"
Hello Santa Barbara County Legal Counsel you getting what I am saying.
Howard Walther, member of a Military Family
SP-Lets bring our Good Military Men and Women Home from Endless Wars and have them all protect our Children right here in the Good Ole USofA.
Thank you, Justin. Santa Barbara City College is going to be increasingly important in the near future as more and more people shift away from expensive colleges (where they get degrees in fields that will be taken over by AI) to more practical trade educations. For SBCC to waste any taxpayer money on anything that doesn't strengthen this aspect of their education is negligent to the point of being criminal. This will affect every aspect of Santa Barbara's future. They have the chance to move forward and turn SBCC into the best place for future generations to develop viable skills and vocations. And from what I see, they are asking for money so they can spend it to promote their Democratic Leftist ideology. Corporations are already moving past woke and DEI. SBCC could easily spend the money they're asking for to turn itself into a useless relic.
Too bad SBCC has cut vocational programs. Next time you need a nurse, a mechanic, a tradesman blame complicit taxpayers for not holding SBCC accountable! The crisis in South County on multiple fronts is simply overwhelming. Too few care to be informed to get involved; are too busy struggling to pay bills and/or raise kids; or are drawn to the golf course or ‘ladies lunches’.
The SBGOP aka SBRCC is MIA — it’s a tiny closed network of a handful of long-time friends that’s tough to access. A few courageous, informed leaders created Unite805 and tried last election. More voters need to support their efforts! AND NPPs need to unite and organize to create a third party locally‼️
A primary supporter of this is none-other then Gregg Hart. What are some of the things he has proven to promote in Santa Barbara? A "daily" tax on ALL PARKING within the city of Santa Barbara public and private. When he found out the people hated it he denied his own words on a local radio show. Is this the same Hart who was promoted to the second highest position of SBCAG and claimed, there was zero conflict of interest, even though he influenced final project decisions. Who would benefit by Measure P?
How about Councilwoman Sneddon, who we last checked, works as an instructor at SBCC. You know her husband as a top 6 figure County government employee who has repeatedly promoted anti car positions at the County. Did you know that jobs at SBCC are so sought after that there is seldom any vacancies and when they occur most are filled by insider information?
"....salaries and payroll at SBCC, standing at a staggering 90%." If even half of this statement is correct it is a slap in the face of every taxpayer who is trying to make ends meet.
Further reading this opposition to Measur P the statement "...the call for a tax increase...." is in direct contradiction to once again, to Gregg Hart's comment "WITHOUT INCREASING TAX RATES.” Which is it Gregg? A TAX INCREASE OR NO TAX INCREASE?
"The bond is being sold as an infrastructure bill but as we have seen with multiple local boards the money rarely is used for its intent....." How true.
The City of Santa Barbara wants to increase the tax burden on residents when it stated the previous 1% tax would be enough. Let's see 1/2% by the City, and this "$198 million tax burden" should not be a problem. If you get most of your pay check from the taxpayer (you know like elected officials, government trolls who cannot make it without gov. checks)
But what the heck, "....exceeds the average of 60-70% seen in other community colleges,...." it is only your wallet
What a great article. It really shows how arrogant and condescending big government is towards taxpayers and spending.
That’s more true than you know. A couple years ago, My homeless, alcoholic brother who sleeps in his nasty van, told me he was going to SBCC and will take “underwater basket weaving or whatever” they gave him $10,000. I know he didn’t attend a single day.
I went to SBCC back when it was fun progressive liberal. My father had wanted me to go to an Ivy League College like my brother, but I begged for one year at SBCC. It was the first time I enjoyed school or learned anything. There were terrific profs, one I'm still friends with, and there were profs who were on a trip, man. But I still learned from them, like Timothy Fetler, my philosophy prof who got me studying Christian philosophers like Kierkegaard. My brother's snooty Ivy Leaguers made fun of me for going there until I invited them on a tour and one of them broke down sobbing “I don't want to go back to Williams, I want to be here.” The people I knew then who went to SBCC all did well in their lives and careers. I had an artist boyfriend who said the expensive art institute he first went to just depressed him, but Ken Nack at SBCC galvanized him - and he's been a successful, self employed self supporting artist for decades now. My point is, liberal education is not the villain. Because a lot of my profs at SBCC were ultra liberal. The awful thing that's happened to SBCC is it's been taken over by the joyless Leftists, who don't have a passion for knowledge. They just want to produce serfs for the New World Order.
Liberal education us the villain, and there is nothing right about "fun progressive liberalism". All forms of liberalism are ultimately opposed to traditional and Christian values. The decay in morality and social cohesion is the result of the increasing of liberal beliefs over time, and given how liberalism lacks a moral framework and us rooted in the rejection of authority and moral constraints, what we see today is just liberalism taken to it's logical conclusion.
Well if you're a conservative but no a Christian, it's difficult for you to justify your beliefs without moral absolutist and an objective framework. And of you aren't even conservative then you shouldn't complain about liberalism taken to it's logical conclusion.
Your response is also weak, instead of addressing my argument you are deflecting.
Lol, in some things I'm a conservative and in others a liberal. And I apologize for not addressing your argument. I didn't know you are The Grand Inquisitor.
That tells me nothing, and such an ideological position is incoherent. Forming a belief system our of conflicting foundations is self defeating. You may as well not stand for anything at all. And true conservatism can only be found in the Christian tradition.
My values are neither liberal or conservative (in the contemporary sense), they are rooted in the Catholic faith and reflected in my Carlist/Integralist beliefs.
Great article Justin! I don’t think people realize how POWERFUL Santa Barbara City College really is. I believe they are the hub and catalyst for setting precedent for the great steal in Santa Barbara, and really California! Remember, of ALL the schools in California, they were closed the longest! They did not want people in their board room. The school system is a vacuum for Tax payer dollars. They have been perfecting it for a long time.
The County Office of Education is the other organization that has extreme power and it feeds SBCC’s work into our schools and sucks the money out of there too! If we are to focus on two local crime rings, I would say it would be SBCC and County Office of Ed. We must change the leadership of both organizations and we have some opportunity’s to do it November 5th. I am running for County Board of Ed TA2, Nick Sebastian is running for County Board of Ed, Lisa Sloan (I believe) is running for the SBCC Board and we all need your help and support for our campaigns.
Total SBCC compensation packages presented by Transparent California stop at 2022, since SBCC has not yet submitted their 2023 compensation schedules. The missing 2023 total compensation information is critical information for Measure P voters so they can to track SBCC's current pattern of personnel expense-spending, that chronically leaves SBCC infrastructure improvement and maintenance shortfalls.
Local voters from Ellwood to Carpinteria elect the SBCC board of trustees by assigned district every four years, who in turn negotiate with the two primary SBCC faculty and staff unions for these overall SBCC compensation packages.
Do you know who your SBCC district trustee is? What degree of communication do you have with that board member.
Thank you, Justin, for your piece on SBCC. I have felt for years that this institution had fallen into corruption and Proposition P needs to go down in a ball of flames. Howard 's comments are also a well laid out set of examples why the voters should vote no on "P" .
Interest payments on those debts have tripled in the last three years.
We are headed for a financial crisis.
No on all taxes and bonds.
Government should be living within their means just as you & I have to.
There have no increase in services with the tax hikes
While we worry about our jobs and salaries being not enough in today’s high cost of living the government wants to give themselves raises that we have to pay for.
Vote NO. Tell your Democrat friends if they vote yes, they can pay your tax bill as well.
Government employees, who by union contract get automatic COLA, are immune to the inflationary forces Democrats have unleashed against the rest of us.
Automatic COLA is an automatic "raise" government employees get, without any of the negative publicity. Inflation? What inflation they say. My COLA-boosted paycheck keeps pace, why can't you.
I can only wish Democrats would pay my property tax bill. My street of only 7 homes paid about $250,000 in property taxes with approximately 64% going to local K-14 public schools districts.
Thank you for writing. City college has lost its way evolving into another bureaucratic cash machine run by politicians and greed. Trustee Abboud is an example of this (reference to hot Mike in your piece).
Warning: Transparent California.org should never be looked at if you don't want to be dazed and shocked, followed by immediate vomiting.
2010 was the watershed year for SBCC - voters installed a new, partisan majority of elected board members that replaced the long-standing independent and prudent board majority. Decades of collective institutional history and management oversight were lost in a single election. Elections do matter.
There have been two successful SBCC bond issues in its long past: one to purchase the West Campus (Garvin Theater side of the campus) that allowed the buildout to what the campus is today. Another SBCC bond issue primarily to improve the Wake and Schott Adult Ed campuses did not pass.
Only after the original first bond issue to expand the campus foot print was paid off, did SBCC in 2008 go out for another limited bond issue which included some new buildings to replace reliance on portable classrooms, and to fund major infrastructure maintenance projects. The promise of state matching funds made this limited bond issue attractive to voters, and it passed for a fixed term. However, those promises is not what voters ultimately got.
The last 2008 SBCC bond issue passed only because it was very specifically limited, of a much smaller and necessary amount, and primarily because of repeated assurances by the state there would be matching funds available to leverage what local voters passed. Egregiously the state backed out of this solid and repeated matching funds commitment, leaving the college with only the local bond funds available so the promised new dedicated high tech SOMA building was eliminated.
Today SBCC disingenuously asks voters to extend the last 2008 SBCC bond issue "tax rate" into an unknown future date, which undermines any possible fiscal probity commitment for any future bond issues. SBCC also only hints there might be state matching funds to sweeten the deal. If past is prologue and the state is running a current deficit, this also violates the integrity of their veiled ask.
The value of any bond issue to voters is for a fixed time period at a a known taxation rate and for specific projects. Claiming only that your current 2008 SBCC fixed date bond will now be extended into some renewable perpetuity, instead of ending as originally approved is a shameless shell game and beneath the dignity of this one fine institution.
Ask for what you need SBCC, explain why you need it, promise what you will do in the future in a mutual commitment to the voters, and establish known limits on any future property tax obligation. Don't ask voters to hand you a blank check with some unknown cut off date.
Trying to coattail the last 2008 SBCC limited bond issue by creating this new virtually endless financial property tax commitment "at the same tax rate" is sneaky, shabby and underhanded.
Excellent overview! Sadly, taxpayers, homeowners are NOT organized; there’s no local paid watchdog for SBCC, SBUSD, CSS, MUS, GUS, Hope District, or for each city council. Until those thousands of individuals and businesses invested in South County, and subsiding the other 40%, agree to pay watchdogs to be informed, as Andy Caldwell does for BOS, guess what? The Democrats, the progressives, the radicals will continue to have 100% control of South County and our wallets. There’s plenty of money; actually too much money: it’s how they choose to waste it!
Too many of the ‘bricks and mortar’ — those volunteers and donors of time and/or money who have made (past tense) this community exceptional — are forced to relocate or die. The good weather simply costs too much. South County has become a totalitarian oligarchy. VOTE NO on Measure P. VOTE NO on every request for more money. Then organize!
I was born and raised in S.B. and have to admit that I never really paid a whole lot of attention to the politics of the running of our once lovely town. As the years rolled on (and on) I could see the merry-go-round of names that kept appearing on the political scene and the obvious nepotism that is instilled in our town. That in itself may not be a bad thing but when the degradation of Santa Barbara keeps growing and growing with these same names always in the mix, one has to question the reason these folks back propositions such as the one in question. Vote no on Prop.P.
More taxpayer funds going down the proverbial drain. This, in order to promote their ongoing dysfunction. More DEI, chasing the imaginary racist bogey man.
Thank you for your article, I’m certainly voting “No.” However, if I were to wager, it passes!
The last SBCC mega-bond did not pass a few years ago- it did not even get 50% of the required 55% necessary vote. So no, SBCC bonds do not automatically pass. Other SBCC bond issues have also not passed.
Good article. Don't have much experience as a student at SBCC. Attended about four weeks of a fall semester back in the early 70s, but was done with "schooling" at that point in my life. Beautiful campus, unbelievably beautiful. And such a small quaint campus. Had a younger sister that attended and graduated with a two-year degree who then went on to complete her education at California University. My mother and younger brother also attended. Everybody loved it. Since the mid90s, did quite a better work for SBCC, as they went through their expansion processes to accommodate more and more students from the outside, including large numbers of foreign students. Always a bit perplexed as the City of SB continued to allow such large expansions, given the impacts. Cheerlessness to watch that once quaint community campus transform into a money machine with the mismanaged bureaucracy baggage attached.
SBCC in the past limited international student enrollment to no more than five hundred students. The primary concern was whether this international exposure would benefit the local students, since SBCC also operated excellent semester abroad programs for the enrichment of local SBCC students too.
This 500 student limit held fast for decades, and also included the fiscal policy to never base the college operating budget on international student enrollments - their enhanced fees were intended to be only "extra money" and not part of the annual college funding base.
After the new board fully took over in 2012, they ultimately increased international student enrollments to 1,800. And unfortunately they also permanently started basing their annual budgets on increased international student enrollments.
International student enrollments have alway been a point of tension with the local community, even when the number was fixed under 500. The role of the elected SBCC board members is to bring in local community concerns to ensure they become part of college policy deliberations. However, protests about increasing international student enrollments due to community concerns fell on deaf ears with this new SBCC board of trustees. I do not know the current number today.
hmmm…also not sure of today’s foreign enrollment number, but seems to me it’s about the money…Annual $1,234 In-State Tuition & Fees v $10,186 Out-of-State Tuition & Fees, as always, follow the $$$…
I read this very excellent article by Justin Shores titled "No On Measure P". I will comment
since I use to live, for 35 years, adajent to City Colledge and some of my good neighbors
are former Professors and employees who have the "Inside Baseball" on the place.
From my City College Employee Neighbors I pass thier comments to you all>>>
1. City College "Openly" Discriminates and for "An Eligthened" Academic Institution Horrendous
(I saw this first-hand)
2. Executives At CC are way-way Overpayed and it is a "Revolving Door" as they cannot address
the "On-Going" Problems there and keep key people. (See item 1 above)
3. Polictical "In-Figthing" with Department Heads Common
4. Misuse of Funds Common.
5. The Academic Programs suffer where CC years ago was a solid City College that has now been greatly degraded
6. In-Fected by the DEI Clan-Network of SB
7. Poor hiring practices, like DEI, common at CC
8. Kids cannot find work or low-cost housing as with Everything SB
9. Based on Items 1 to 8 above would not give this place one cent until they clean-it-up.
My Two Cents above propably worth One Cent in this Town
Howard Walther, member of a Military Family
I tried to stay away from DEIA in the article but it is their biggest priority. They spend millions on it with out blinking and with zero oversight. Trustee Jonathan Abboud told me “There is no amount of money that is too much to spend on anti racism” when I asked about a huge no bid contract they were giving to a DEIA Trainer for teachers.
The MAJOR Problem with CC is thier Management Breaches their own DEI-Gospel on
Discrimination than rigth behind everyones back DISCRIMINATES. It really is
hard to make this up. I helped one of my Neighbors who was BLANTLY Discriminated
against by CC Executives UNTIL he got a LA Civil Rigths Attorneys and it went away
IMMEDIATELY. The only thing SB Executives UNDERSTANDS is the HAMMER because
they are typically HAMMERING Citizens in thier Community.
That said, SB County is getting another BIG CIVIL RIGTHS LAWSUIT coming thier way
and quess what it is all about folks. It just never-never-never stops in SB >>>>>
https://www.independent.com/2023/12/11/santa-barbara-unified-school-district-found-at-fault-in-25m-lawsuit/ AND I QUOTE YET AGAIN>>>>
"Verdict Rendered Against District for Sexual Abuse and Grooming of Students by Former Employee and Football Coach"
Welcome to DEI Santa Barbara where you to can have the privildge of having your Children Sexually Abused, Physically Abused and Emotionally Abused in-fact-all-in-one.
The New Title to this Article is "SAY HELL NO TO ABUSE OF OUR CHILDREN"
Hello Santa Barbara County Legal Counsel you getting what I am saying.
Howard Walther, member of a Military Family
SP-Lets bring our Good Military Men and Women Home from Endless Wars and have them all protect our Children right here in the Good Ole USofA.
God bless, Howard. Couldn’t agree more.
Thank you, Howard. You are absolutely right.
Thank you, Justin. Santa Barbara City College is going to be increasingly important in the near future as more and more people shift away from expensive colleges (where they get degrees in fields that will be taken over by AI) to more practical trade educations. For SBCC to waste any taxpayer money on anything that doesn't strengthen this aspect of their education is negligent to the point of being criminal. This will affect every aspect of Santa Barbara's future. They have the chance to move forward and turn SBCC into the best place for future generations to develop viable skills and vocations. And from what I see, they are asking for money so they can spend it to promote their Democratic Leftist ideology. Corporations are already moving past woke and DEI. SBCC could easily spend the money they're asking for to turn itself into a useless relic.
Polly, another poignant observation. Always a great comment. Thanks
Thanks, Jeff. It's always great to see you here.
Too bad SBCC has cut vocational programs. Next time you need a nurse, a mechanic, a tradesman blame complicit taxpayers for not holding SBCC accountable! The crisis in South County on multiple fronts is simply overwhelming. Too few care to be informed to get involved; are too busy struggling to pay bills and/or raise kids; or are drawn to the golf course or ‘ladies lunches’.
The SBGOP aka SBRCC is MIA — it’s a tiny closed network of a handful of long-time friends that’s tough to access. A few courageous, informed leaders created Unite805 and tried last election. More voters need to support their efforts! AND NPPs need to unite and organize to create a third party locally‼️
" . . Corporations are already moving past woke and DEI. . ."
You can say that again - I sure am glad to see them finally waking up!
Great article. How much better does this one get?
A primary supporter of this is none-other then Gregg Hart. What are some of the things he has proven to promote in Santa Barbara? A "daily" tax on ALL PARKING within the city of Santa Barbara public and private. When he found out the people hated it he denied his own words on a local radio show. Is this the same Hart who was promoted to the second highest position of SBCAG and claimed, there was zero conflict of interest, even though he influenced final project decisions. Who would benefit by Measure P?
How about Councilwoman Sneddon, who we last checked, works as an instructor at SBCC. You know her husband as a top 6 figure County government employee who has repeatedly promoted anti car positions at the County. Did you know that jobs at SBCC are so sought after that there is seldom any vacancies and when they occur most are filled by insider information?
"....salaries and payroll at SBCC, standing at a staggering 90%." If even half of this statement is correct it is a slap in the face of every taxpayer who is trying to make ends meet.
Further reading this opposition to Measur P the statement "...the call for a tax increase...." is in direct contradiction to once again, to Gregg Hart's comment "WITHOUT INCREASING TAX RATES.” Which is it Gregg? A TAX INCREASE OR NO TAX INCREASE?
"The bond is being sold as an infrastructure bill but as we have seen with multiple local boards the money rarely is used for its intent....." How true.
The City of Santa Barbara wants to increase the tax burden on residents when it stated the previous 1% tax would be enough. Let's see 1/2% by the City, and this "$198 million tax burden" should not be a problem. If you get most of your pay check from the taxpayer (you know like elected officials, government trolls who cannot make it without gov. checks)
But what the heck, "....exceeds the average of 60-70% seen in other community colleges,...." it is only your wallet
What a great article. It really shows how arrogant and condescending big government is towards taxpayers and spending.
I would not trust the phony smiling Hart to tell me to leave a burning building
SBCC would better serve the community as a homeless shelter.
That’s more true than you know. A couple years ago, My homeless, alcoholic brother who sleeps in his nasty van, told me he was going to SBCC and will take “underwater basket weaving or whatever” they gave him $10,000. I know he didn’t attend a single day.
I went to SBCC back when it was fun progressive liberal. My father had wanted me to go to an Ivy League College like my brother, but I begged for one year at SBCC. It was the first time I enjoyed school or learned anything. There were terrific profs, one I'm still friends with, and there were profs who were on a trip, man. But I still learned from them, like Timothy Fetler, my philosophy prof who got me studying Christian philosophers like Kierkegaard. My brother's snooty Ivy Leaguers made fun of me for going there until I invited them on a tour and one of them broke down sobbing “I don't want to go back to Williams, I want to be here.” The people I knew then who went to SBCC all did well in their lives and careers. I had an artist boyfriend who said the expensive art institute he first went to just depressed him, but Ken Nack at SBCC galvanized him - and he's been a successful, self employed self supporting artist for decades now. My point is, liberal education is not the villain. Because a lot of my profs at SBCC were ultra liberal. The awful thing that's happened to SBCC is it's been taken over by the joyless Leftists, who don't have a passion for knowledge. They just want to produce serfs for the New World Order.
Help inform others! Yes SBCC was ranked #1; now it’s ranked for only LOCATION, and ONLINE CODING. Everything else is off the ranking charts.
Liberal education us the villain, and there is nothing right about "fun progressive liberalism". All forms of liberalism are ultimately opposed to traditional and Christian values. The decay in morality and social cohesion is the result of the increasing of liberal beliefs over time, and given how liberalism lacks a moral framework and us rooted in the rejection of authority and moral constraints, what we see today is just liberalism taken to it's logical conclusion.
I'm not a Christian. So throw me to the lions.
Well if you're a conservative but no a Christian, it's difficult for you to justify your beliefs without moral absolutist and an objective framework. And of you aren't even conservative then you shouldn't complain about liberalism taken to it's logical conclusion.
Your response is also weak, instead of addressing my argument you are deflecting.
Lol, in some things I'm a conservative and in others a liberal. And I apologize for not addressing your argument. I didn't know you are The Grand Inquisitor.
That tells me nothing, and such an ideological position is incoherent. Forming a belief system our of conflicting foundations is self defeating. You may as well not stand for anything at all. And true conservatism can only be found in the Christian tradition.
My values are neither liberal or conservative (in the contemporary sense), they are rooted in the Catholic faith and reflected in my Carlist/Integralist beliefs.
" . . there were profs who were on a trip, man. . ." Polly you're cute :)
Jeff, yes for starts, than afterwards just Bulldoz CC and turn it back into a Beach Park
for SB Citizens to enjoy with no complications.
Great article Justin! I don’t think people realize how POWERFUL Santa Barbara City College really is. I believe they are the hub and catalyst for setting precedent for the great steal in Santa Barbara, and really California! Remember, of ALL the schools in California, they were closed the longest! They did not want people in their board room. The school system is a vacuum for Tax payer dollars. They have been perfecting it for a long time.
The County Office of Education is the other organization that has extreme power and it feeds SBCC’s work into our schools and sucks the money out of there too! If we are to focus on two local crime rings, I would say it would be SBCC and County Office of Ed. We must change the leadership of both organizations and we have some opportunity’s to do it November 5th. I am running for County Board of Ed TA2, Nick Sebastian is running for County Board of Ed, Lisa Sloan (I believe) is running for the SBCC Board and we all need your help and support for our campaigns.
How does 90% of SBCC funding get spent? Transparent California: https://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/2022/santa-barbara-city-college/
Total SBCC compensation packages presented by Transparent California stop at 2022, since SBCC has not yet submitted their 2023 compensation schedules. The missing 2023 total compensation information is critical information for Measure P voters so they can to track SBCC's current pattern of personnel expense-spending, that chronically leaves SBCC infrastructure improvement and maintenance shortfalls.
Local voters from Ellwood to Carpinteria elect the SBCC board of trustees by assigned district every four years, who in turn negotiate with the two primary SBCC faculty and staff unions for these overall SBCC compensation packages.
Do you know who your SBCC district trustee is? What degree of communication do you have with that board member.
Thank you, Justin, for your piece on SBCC. I have felt for years that this institution had fallen into corruption and Proposition P needs to go down in a ball of flames. Howard 's comments are also a well laid out set of examples why the voters should vote no on "P" .
Debt is at all time highs.
Interest payments on those debts have tripled in the last three years.
We are headed for a financial crisis.
No on all taxes and bonds.
Government should be living within their means just as you & I have to.
There have no increase in services with the tax hikes
While we worry about our jobs and salaries being not enough in today’s high cost of living the government wants to give themselves raises that we have to pay for.
Vote NO. Tell your Democrat friends if they vote yes, they can pay your tax bill as well.
Government employees, who by union contract get automatic COLA, are immune to the inflationary forces Democrats have unleashed against the rest of us.
Automatic COLA is an automatic "raise" government employees get, without any of the negative publicity. Inflation? What inflation they say. My COLA-boosted paycheck keeps pace, why can't you.
I can only wish Democrats would pay my property tax bill. My street of only 7 homes paid about $250,000 in property taxes with approximately 64% going to local K-14 public schools districts.
Thanks Justin! I will vote NO on measure P.
Thank you for writing. City college has lost its way evolving into another bureaucratic cash machine run by politicians and greed. Trustee Abboud is an example of this (reference to hot Mike in your piece).
Warning: Transparent California.org should never be looked at if you don't want to be dazed and shocked, followed by immediate vomiting.
2010 was the watershed year for SBCC - voters installed a new, partisan majority of elected board members that replaced the long-standing independent and prudent board majority. Decades of collective institutional history and management oversight were lost in a single election. Elections do matter.
HISTORY OF SBCC BOND ISSUES
There have been two successful SBCC bond issues in its long past: one to purchase the West Campus (Garvin Theater side of the campus) that allowed the buildout to what the campus is today. Another SBCC bond issue primarily to improve the Wake and Schott Adult Ed campuses did not pass.
Only after the original first bond issue to expand the campus foot print was paid off, did SBCC in 2008 go out for another limited bond issue which included some new buildings to replace reliance on portable classrooms, and to fund major infrastructure maintenance projects. The promise of state matching funds made this limited bond issue attractive to voters, and it passed for a fixed term. However, those promises is not what voters ultimately got.
The last 2008 SBCC bond issue passed only because it was very specifically limited, of a much smaller and necessary amount, and primarily because of repeated assurances by the state there would be matching funds available to leverage what local voters passed. Egregiously the state backed out of this solid and repeated matching funds commitment, leaving the college with only the local bond funds available so the promised new dedicated high tech SOMA building was eliminated.
Today SBCC disingenuously asks voters to extend the last 2008 SBCC bond issue "tax rate" into an unknown future date, which undermines any possible fiscal probity commitment for any future bond issues. SBCC also only hints there might be state matching funds to sweeten the deal. If past is prologue and the state is running a current deficit, this also violates the integrity of their veiled ask.
The value of any bond issue to voters is for a fixed time period at a a known taxation rate and for specific projects. Claiming only that your current 2008 SBCC fixed date bond will now be extended into some renewable perpetuity, instead of ending as originally approved is a shameless shell game and beneath the dignity of this one fine institution.
Ask for what you need SBCC, explain why you need it, promise what you will do in the future in a mutual commitment to the voters, and establish known limits on any future property tax obligation. Don't ask voters to hand you a blank check with some unknown cut off date.
Trying to coattail the last 2008 SBCC limited bond issue by creating this new virtually endless financial property tax commitment "at the same tax rate" is sneaky, shabby and underhanded.
Excellent overview! Sadly, taxpayers, homeowners are NOT organized; there’s no local paid watchdog for SBCC, SBUSD, CSS, MUS, GUS, Hope District, or for each city council. Until those thousands of individuals and businesses invested in South County, and subsiding the other 40%, agree to pay watchdogs to be informed, as Andy Caldwell does for BOS, guess what? The Democrats, the progressives, the radicals will continue to have 100% control of South County and our wallets. There’s plenty of money; actually too much money: it’s how they choose to waste it!
Too many of the ‘bricks and mortar’ — those volunteers and donors of time and/or money who have made (past tense) this community exceptional — are forced to relocate or die. The good weather simply costs too much. South County has become a totalitarian oligarchy. VOTE NO on Measure P. VOTE NO on every request for more money. Then organize!
SBCC Measure P -- asking voters to buy a Pig in a Poke.
Websters explains a pig in a poke : something offered in such a way as to obscure its real nature or worth.
I was born and raised in S.B. and have to admit that I never really paid a whole lot of attention to the politics of the running of our once lovely town. As the years rolled on (and on) I could see the merry-go-round of names that kept appearing on the political scene and the obvious nepotism that is instilled in our town. That in itself may not be a bad thing but when the degradation of Santa Barbara keeps growing and growing with these same names always in the mix, one has to question the reason these folks back propositions such as the one in question. Vote no on Prop.P.
More taxpayer funds going down the proverbial drain. This, in order to promote their ongoing dysfunction. More DEI, chasing the imaginary racist bogey man.
Thank you for your article, I’m certainly voting “No.” However, if I were to wager, it passes!
The last SBCC mega-bond did not pass a few years ago- it did not even get 50% of the required 55% necessary vote. So no, SBCC bonds do not automatically pass. Other SBCC bond issues have also not passed.
Good article. Don't have much experience as a student at SBCC. Attended about four weeks of a fall semester back in the early 70s, but was done with "schooling" at that point in my life. Beautiful campus, unbelievably beautiful. And such a small quaint campus. Had a younger sister that attended and graduated with a two-year degree who then went on to complete her education at California University. My mother and younger brother also attended. Everybody loved it. Since the mid90s, did quite a better work for SBCC, as they went through their expansion processes to accommodate more and more students from the outside, including large numbers of foreign students. Always a bit perplexed as the City of SB continued to allow such large expansions, given the impacts. Cheerlessness to watch that once quaint community campus transform into a money machine with the mismanaged bureaucracy baggage attached.
SBCC in the past limited international student enrollment to no more than five hundred students. The primary concern was whether this international exposure would benefit the local students, since SBCC also operated excellent semester abroad programs for the enrichment of local SBCC students too.
This 500 student limit held fast for decades, and also included the fiscal policy to never base the college operating budget on international student enrollments - their enhanced fees were intended to be only "extra money" and not part of the annual college funding base.
After the new board fully took over in 2012, they ultimately increased international student enrollments to 1,800. And unfortunately they also permanently started basing their annual budgets on increased international student enrollments.
International student enrollments have alway been a point of tension with the local community, even when the number was fixed under 500. The role of the elected SBCC board members is to bring in local community concerns to ensure they become part of college policy deliberations. However, protests about increasing international student enrollments due to community concerns fell on deaf ears with this new SBCC board of trustees. I do not know the current number today.
hmmm…also not sure of today’s foreign enrollment number, but seems to me it’s about the money…Annual $1,234 In-State Tuition & Fees v $10,186 Out-of-State Tuition & Fees, as always, follow the $$$…
Speaking of eduction, you might also like this USA situation report by General Mike Flynn, starts @ 40:40 … https://www.youtube.com/live/9oo8cMGmTPo
Buckle Up…
Listening now ....................