California Proposition 55, Bonds for Schools (March 2004)

California Proposition 55, or the Kindergarten-University Public Education Facilities Bond Act of 2004 was on the March 2, 2004 ballot in California as a legislatively-referred bond act, where it was narrowly approved.

Proposition 55 authorized the State of California to issue $10 billion of general obligation bonds for construction and renovation of K-12 school facilities and $2.3 billion of general obligation bonds for construction and renovation of higher education facilities, for a total of $12.3 billion.

Election results

Proposition 55
Result		Votes	Percentage
a Yes		3,239,706	50.9%
No		3,130,921	49.1%

Text of measure

Graph of proposed Proposition 55 spending, prepared by the LAO

Title

The ballot title was:

Kindergarten -University Public Education Facilities Bond Act of 2004. Legislative Bond Act.

Question

The question on the ballot was:

"Should the state sell twelve billion three hundred million dollars ($12,300,000,000) in general obligation bonds for construction and renovation of K-12 school facilities and higher education facilities?"

Summary

The summary of the ballot measure prepared by the California Attorney General said:

• This act provides for a bond issue of twelve billion three hundred million dollars ($12,300,000,000) to fund necessary education facilities to relieve overcrowding and to repair older schools.
• Funds will be targeted to areas of greatest need and must be spent according to strict accountability measures.
• Funds will also be used to upgrade and build new classrooms in the California Community Colleges, the California State University, and the University of California, to provide adequate higher education facilities to accommodate growing student enrollment.
• Appropriates money from General Fund to pay off bonds.

Fiscal impact

See also: Fiscal impact statement

The California Legislative Analyst's Office provided an estimate of net state and local government fiscal impact for Proposition 55. That estimate was:

• "State costs of about $24.7 billion to pay off both the principal ($12.3 billion) and interest ($12.4 billion) costs on the bonds."
• "Payments of about $823 million per year."

Campaign

Over $13.9 million was spent in favor of the measure, while there was no committee opposing it.

Five separate organizations spent money to pass Proposition 55:

• "Yes on 55, Californians for Accountability & Better Schools": $10,199,505. The major donor to this group was the California Teachers Association, which gave it $5,050,552.
• "California Building Industry Association Issues PAC": $1,286,264
• "Californians for Higher Education Yes on 55": $1,284,929
• "Coalition for Adequate School Housing Issues Committee Yes on 55": $856,897
• "Community College Facility Coalition Issues Committee Yes on 55": $338,925

Path to the ballot

Proposition 55 was voted onto the ballot by the California State Legislature via Assembly Bill 16 of the 2001-2002 Regular Session (Chapter 33, Statues of 2002).

Votes in legislature to refer to ballot
Chamber	Ayes	Noes
Assembly	71	8
Senate	27	11

See also

• California 2004 ballot propositions

External links

• Official Voter Guide with text of Proposition 55
• LAO analysis of Proposition 55
• Smart Voter on Proposition 55
• California Taxpayer Protection Committee This group opposed the measure.
• Campaign finance details from Follow the Money
• March 2, 2004 ballot proposition election results
• PDF of the mailed March 2, 2004 voter guide