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Crosscurrents

San Francisco Proposition A: Facilities Bond For City College Of San Francisco

Justin Yap
/
Flickr Creative Commons / used under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
A hand drawn, two-point perspective of the Rosenberg Library at City College of San Francisco. Feb. 25, 2008.

Prop A would let City College of San Francisco borrow up to $845 million by issuing bonds. The money would go to buy or construct new buildings and fix up existing ones at the nine campuses to make them safe and energy efficient.

The community college also wants to use the bond money for some new projects to better prepare students for the workforce. Like a new science, tech, arts and math building, and a facility to train students to work in the local construction trade.

Local bonds get repaid through property tax increases. This bond, the city controller says, would wind up costing San Francisco property owners about $11 for each $100,000 of assessed property. That’s every year for the next three decades or so. An independent Citizens’ Oversight Committee would monitor spending.

Backers — including all City College trustees — say nearly three-fourths of the buildings at the main Ocean Campus need repairs and upgrades. Some of them have gotten only minor fixes since the college opened in 1935. Renovations are also overdue at campuses in the Bayview, Chinatown, Civic Center, Downtown, the Mission and the Panhandle.  Proponents have raised about $50,000.

No one has raised money to defeat Prop A. The only formal opposition comes from the San Francisco Republican Party. City College should be made safe for all students, the party says, but the burden of paying for that deferred maintenance shouldn’t fall on property owners.

So, if you want to authorize City College to borrow $845 through bond financing, and use it to fix and upgrade its buildings, vote  yes on Prop A. If you don’t, vote no.