The San Bruno Beacon

At their Wednesday, May 14, 2008 Board Meeting, the San Bruno Park School District (SBPSD) Board of Trustees is going to try to ram yet another parcel tax down the throats of San Bruno's residents in the November 2008 Election. This at a time when housing prices are crashing, the economy is in a recession, and gas prices are well above $4 per gallon.

You can bet that the people behind this parcel tax scheme will start printing brochures and other propaganda filled with pictures of children that talk about how the children are our future, our children need your money, etc. Unfortunately, the tax load on many of the parents of these very same children is going to be so great that, combined with their mortgage and all of their other bills, these children's parents may lose their homes and not be able to send their kids to the very same school district that is causing them to lose their home. So maybe we can print up brochures and pamphlets with children standing in front of a house with a "foreclosed sign" on the lawn? Is that the type of future we are taking about for our children and their families?

Last year, San Bruno's sales tax revenue based was threatened by the City's reckless Measure F tax scheme that would have raised your sales taxes, destroyed local businesses, and driven consumers out of San Bruno. We fought Measure F, we won. This year, the San Bruno Park School District (SBPSD) Board of Trustees is threatening to increase the financial pain on you and your family by spending your tax dollars against you in an attempt to raise your property taxes with yet another SBPSD school district parcel tax. Look at your property tax bill and you will see how you are being buried in school district property taxes by the San Bruno Park Elementary School District, the San Mateo Union High School District, and the San Mateo Junior College District. The financial problems associated with skyrocketing property taxes exacerbate the weak financial position of many families and this leads to other serious and potentially dangerous social problems. To add insult to injury, much of this taxpayer money being handed over to these School Districts is being squandered and misspent.

The accounting controls at the SBPSD are so bad that the SBPSD has paid out money to Members of the San Bruno Park School District (SBPSD) Board of Trustees when these people were not entitled to the money the District paid to them. This payout scandal went on for several years while this money was drained out of the District's Treasury. Now, San Bruno Park School District Superintendent David Hutt refuses to subject the SBPSD to a thorough audits of the District's internal financial and accounting controls.

Yet, SBPSD Superintendent Hutt is running around trying to sue one of the former SBPSD Board Members who isn't paying back SBPSD money that Hutt wrongfully paid out to him in the form of insurance premiums for several years. With all of the problems that Hutt has created for the SBPSD, you would think he would spend more of his time acting like a Superintendent instead of playing the part of an ineffective bill collector.

Can you imagine passing a parcel tax so this guy Hutt will have even more of your tax dollars to play with?

But this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to problems at the SBPSD. Not unlike the City of San Bruno, the SBPSD requires new management and some new elected officials who will not squander the taxpayer money they are given, learn how to make necessary cuts, and live within their budget just like every one of San Bruno's residents must do when they budget for their family's expenses.

Bleeding San Bruno's taxpayers with yet another parcel tax to pay for the incompetence and mistakes of the SBPSD Board of Trustees and Superintendent will not bring better education to San Bruno. It will only encourage more fiscal irresponsibility from this group that has proven themselves incapable of making prudent financial decisions that will benefit the children of San Bruno.