No on V


I urge everyone to vote no on Measure V.

Measure V calls for selling $198 million in bonds to pay for supposed upgrades, delayed maintenance and facility upgrades at the 14 schools in the district.

If passed, it will cost between $170 and $200 on average a year for the next 30 years added to your property tax bill.

If you look at your tax bill, you will see you are already paying several hundred dollars a year for schools.

Those supporting the measure have spent a lot of money on expensive mailers and yard signs to play on your emotions to vote for the measure.

Though you will pay the cost of the bonds on your tax bill for the next 30 years, the district chose to go the bonds route that only requires a 55% vote to pass instead of a parcel tax because a parcel tax requires a 66% vote to pass and they know that would never pass.

Unlike previous bond sales and parcel taxes, there is no provision for exemption for senior citizens. If this passes along with the other measures and propositions on the ballot, taxes will go up significantly.

Enrollment in the Las Virgenes school district has basically been flat for the last decade. If it weren’t for the addition of outof district students attending on permit, enrollment would greatly be reduced from decades ago.

Measure V is so broad in its scope of what can be purchased with the proceeds of the bonds sale, it is mind boggling; anything from upgrading and constructing new facilities, to backup generators, solar panels to fences, to buying anything under the sun.

I urge you to visit the nearest school to you such as Yerba Buena Elementary. It is beautiful and obviously state-of-the-art school construction.

I also urge you to go to the Las Virgenes School district website where the district proudly displays the statistics of its accomplishments, such as the 95% of students going on to four-year colleges.

You will also see that Measure G, a previous bond measure that we are still paying for, is doing exactly what Measure V proposes to do. You will also see the millions of dollars the district raises every year from local groups.

Measure V is not needed. It will be an added burden on already heavily taxed homeowners and will be a waste of taxpayer money, if passed.

Barry Elman
Agoura Hills