California school bond elections
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Each public school district in California can place ballot measures before its voters to approve bond issues. California also has a statewide school building program known as the School Facilities Grant Program which is supported by statewide bond measures such as Proposition 1D in 2006. Statewide bond measures require a simple majority to pass.
Local school districts can also issue school construction bonds and levy property taxes to pay for them, as long as the voters in the district approve. Prior to 2001, districts needed two-thirds approval to pass local general obligation bond measures. More than 40% of local school bond ballot questions failed. In November 2000, California voters passed Proposition 39. Proposition 39 reduced the supermajority needed to pass a bond issue ballot question from 67% to 55%. Prop. 39 also imposed some restrictions on the allowable amount of the bond and included some accountability requirements. Since the passage of Proposition 39, districts have had the choice of whether to seek two-thirds or 55% approval. 80% of local school bond ballots that rely on the 55% approval have succeeded.
See California school bond issues for a list of all Ballotpedia articles about specific school district bond issue ballot measures.
2008 school bond elections
November 4 results
February 5 results
39 school districts asked for additional funding on February 5, 2008. 30 of the 39 passed with more than the 55% approval rate required by Prop 39 for their passage, for a total of approximately $3.9 billion in approved local school construction funds.
Eighteen of the thirty that passed would have failed to gain approval before Prop. 39 lowered the success threshold from two-thirds to 55%. The eighteen that passed because of the 55% threshold that would not have passed with a 2/3 threshold added $2.3 billion in new spending.
$100 billion in bonds from 1996-2006
From 1996 to 2006, California voters approved nearly $100 billion in school construction bonds at the state and local level. This total increased with passage of California Proposition 1D (2006) by another $10.4 billion.
In another study, from 1986 through 1999, 450 school districts sponsored 731 general obligation bond elections. 54% of the 731 passed. In those years, two-thirds voter approval was required; this changed in 2000 to 55%.
Statewide school bond measures
External links
- Cal Tax: November 4, 2008 bond election analysis from CalTax.
- Never-ending school bonds
- What is a bond?
- California's school finance system
- How to get a bond issue passed, from the National Clearinghouse on Educational Facilities (NCEF)
- February 5 approval of local school bonds
- Results of tax, bond and loan elections in California school districts, 1971-1972
- Local bond elections in California: Some vital statistics, January 2000.
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