Gubernatorial Candidate Warns That Bonds Will Create More Problems for California than They Solve



The California Legislature is putting the largest public works bond package in history on the November ballot. Art Olivier says the bonds are unnecessary and will burden the state with massive debt.

"The $10.4 billion education bond is unnecessary as school construction in new developments are already funded by development fees" said Olivier, the former mayor of Bellflower. "Most of the remaining school construction would not be needed if only children that are here legally were enrolled."

Olivier says that all school construction should be built using the California Uniform Building Code. "The depression era Field Act, which makes school construction prohibitively expensive, should be abolished."

Olivier does not believe that the $2.9 billion housing bond will make housing affordable in California. Instead of bonds, Olivier suggests that the government allow the construction of more housing units. "High density residential is the most profitable type of real estate development and it can also help solve our housing shortage. If cities relied more on property tax rather than sales tax for their revenue, they would make better land use decisions and allow more homes to be built instead of subsidizing big box retail development."

Over $4 billion from sales tax on gasoline has been raised since Proposition 42 went into effect in July of 2003. That money is supposed to go into transportation but Governor Schwarzenegger spent the money on other programs. "The proposed $19.9 billion transportation bond will waste more money on rail boondoggles and artificially high prevailing wages. If the gas tax and vehicle license fees went to expanding our freeways and legislation was written to allow private toll roads for commercial trucks, commuters would not have to deal with the day-to-day gridlock that wastes their time and gas" said Olivier.

"All of the California taxpayers should not be on the hook for the $4.1 billion in flood protection for the Central Valley" says Olivier. "If property owners feel that their levees are inadequate, they can pass a local property assessment tax and require future flood zone developers to pay fees for levee upgrades"

Olivier further stated that "we should not burden our children with these massive bonds when we can fix our neglected infrastructure without new debt and the higher taxes that invariably follow."





Gubernatorial Candidate Warns That Bonds Will Create More Problems for California than They Solve