The bond will pay for upgrades at MUSD facilities and improve campus infrastructure with an oversight committee monitoring how the funds are spent. If the measure passes by 55%, property owners will pay back the bond on their taxes at a price of $36.19 per $100,000 of their assessed property value. Daigneault asked candidate Johnnie Ward Jr. if he supported the bond:
“Absolutely. I don’t see any holes in the bond. We need the improvements to the schools. You asked about safety—the bond can help improve safety. Also, the Airbnb owners that are here now— they will finally be able to help (the district) because if you’re owning multiple properties out here, you’ll be paying the brunt of the taxes on it, so I think it’s a great idea.”
Karalee Hargrove, on the other hand, said she is not in support of the bond, citing that it would be another tax burden on families struggling to make ends meet.
“Absolutely not. I am not in favor of the bond and here’s why: I worry about the extra costs of the bond. We already have one still on our property taxes, property insurance is going up with these recent wildfires… I have to worry if it’s gonna go up again, how much more can we tax the community? The bond is on here because Governor Newsom and the legislature put on Prop 2 which is a state bond that’s an $80 billion bond and in order for the district to get any of that funding, it has to run a bond as well in order to get 50% funded. But do we really know what it’s going to go towards? We keep hearing that some schools are just beyond repair? Well, let me tell you something—we have $94 million in the general fund. How can I ask parents and grandparents who are raising their students or anybody out here who’s already being taxed, already worried about being able to buy milk, to buy gas… how can I put more costs on a parent? That’s why I am strongly opposed to it.”
When incumbent Robert Hamilton was asked the same question, he voiced his unwavering support of the bond:
“I am (in support of the bond). I understand that it does come at a cost to our constituents and that’s not something to take lightly. But we must look at the benefit a bond would provide to our students because the plan is to modernize our facilities, to update and repair what we have, and continue to improve the infrastructure of our district. This is all at the service of our students and that includes things like being able to respond to a wildfire or the recent rain damage that happened within our trustee area. We need to be able to ensure that our schools are remaining intact and that we can improve provide money for things like improving our safety programs, providing shade structures, so at bare minimum our students are more comfortable. Goodness knows it gets hot out here and that ties into safety as well. We need to look at all the ways this money can be used, and I believe that the oversight committee that we have in place, monitoring how these bond funds are spent, ensuring they go to where we say the money is going to, I have great faith in them and i think this could be a real boom to our district.”
For an example of bond funds going to great use, Joshua Tree Elementary’s multipurpose room was built because of the 2005 bond measure. Two more bond measures were presented to voters in 2018 and 2020. The 2018 bond nearly passed at 54.9% approval, and the 2020 bond was approved by only 40%.
Listen to the full interview here:
