BY DARRELL R. SANTSCHI
Voters in the Hemet Unified School District will be asked Tuesday, Nov. 6, to approve a measure that would allow the district to refinance $49 million in construction bonds. Measure U, which requires approval of a 55 percent majority plus at least one more vote, would cost taxpayers $27 a year for every $100,000 of assessed property value over the next 29 years. School district officials say that under the vagaries of a complicated series of construction financing options, the measure could save taxpayers $200 million in interest payments. Proponents say it will pay off a construction project recently completed at Hemet High School and provide money for projects ranging from the purchase of solar panels installed at 17 district sites to a $27 million renovation and modernization project at Acacia Middle School. No organized opposition has surfaced. The measure re-authorizes the sale of $49 million of bonds originally included in a $149 million bond measure approved by district voters in 2006. Measure T, as the original measure was called, passed under a legal provision requiring only 55 percent voter approval rather than the normally required two-thirds voter acceptance. But that included a catch in the law that imposed a maximum tax rate of $60 per $100 of assessed property value. “When we did Measure T the district was growing between 4 and 8 percent a year,” said Vincent Christakos, the Hemet district’s assistant superintendent of business. “Then, when 2008 rolled around, we had the Great Recession and property values dropped.” With home values plunging, the district writes on its website, valuation in the district plunged 25 percent. The $60 cap that would have generated $149 million in 2006 has only provided enough tax revenue to sell $100 million in bonds. “We all know now in hindsight that there has been a real recession when it comes to housing,” said Richard Beck, the Hemet district’s former assistant superintendent of business. He now serves as treasurer for Taxpayers for Measure U, which is promoting passage of the new ballot measure. Christakos said school district officials held out hope that the real estate market would rebound and wanted to take advantage of cheaper construction costs and some no-interest federal stimulus money. To do that, they sold $25 million in short-term bonds, called a bond anticipation note, to complete such construction projects as the renovation and additions of a theater and new classrooms at Hemet High. Trouble is, Christakos said, housing values have not risen fast enough and the anticipation note has to be paid off in June 2015. If Measure U fails, he said, school board members could decide to sell the remaining $49 million in bonds under theoriginal voter-approved Measure T. Interest would begin accruing immediately, Christakos said. But payments on the debt — limited by the $60 cap — could not begin until either property values rise significantly or much of the $100 million in bonds already sold are paid down. He estimated that would extend payments on Measure T bonds by nine years and add $200 million in interest to the cost of repaying them. Beck said Measure U “is the cheapest way to fund what we originally approved as voters. Otherwise they are going to spend a whole lot more money to pay off their debt.” The 970-member Hemet Teachers Association has endorsed passage of Measure U. “It’s a win-win situation,” union President Robert Hudson said. “We get to utilize the remaining $49 million to finish up and continue some projects that we already started and that will benefit kids in the long run. It will provide them with the schools they need to stay current in the 21st century.”