▶ Key Takeaways
- Bond measures create substantial long-term repayment costs for taxpayers.
- Contractors, investors, unions, consultants, and other interests benefit from bond spending.
- Professional marketing campaigns will influence how bond measures are presented to voters.
- Appealing ballot titles will obscure the details and potential costs of proposed bonds.
- Bond oversight committees may lack sufficient independence, authority, or accountability.
- All voters should carefully scrutinize bond measures before deciding how to vote.
Across America there is a bond epidemic. On the ballots most areas are local and school bonds, county and special district bonds, and state bonds.
California for example has 50 state and local bonds for a yes or no vote this election.
This bond epidemic is dangerous:
It hurts your family.
It takes your wealth.
It steals your freedom.
Here are 6 things you need to know about bonds:
1. They Are The Most Wasteful Type of Financing.
For every dollar earned from the bond, taxpayers will have to pay about $2.18 because of the high interest charged on the bond.
Imagine approving a $100 million for a project but discovering repayment is nearly $217.9 million at 6% interest.
That extra $118 million doesn’t pay for more police or judges. Not for repairs or building additional roads. And not for more water storage or fire protection.
The ones who get the interest money are bankers, investors and countries like Communist China.
But taxpayers must pay off the debt… along with outrageous interest payments. It may come from sales tax, property taxes and if your state has them, from income taxes.
2. Behind the Scenes: Secret Special Interests Profit from Bonds.
Many special interests make big money with bonds.
They help create the bonds. They help pay for the marketing and advertising. They are the invisible force behind the bonds.
They include:
- Construction companies—they can’t wait to get another lucrative contract
- Wall Street investors—they profit from the bonds because of the $2 to $1 interest payback costs
- Labor unions—they get more money and jobs for their members
- Self-interest special groups – they get millions they could get without the taxpayers.
- Government Bureaucrats. They make big money keeping the money flowing into government coffers for their job security and projects.
3. Professional Money Machine Marketing
Each bond is backed by a professional company that specializes in advertising and passing bonds. They make big money—at taxpayers’ expense.
They know how to create the bond, word the bond and convince voters to vote yes.
4. False and Deceptive Titles
Ballot measures often rely on deceptive or outright false advertising. They even impose a sense of guilt on those who don’t want to support the bond.
You’ll see:
- “School Safety”
- “Cander Cured”
- “Clean Water”
- “Better Roads”
Who would oppose those?
For example, school districts which promote these bonds rely on paid consultants mentioned above—using your tax dollars—to write the most effective bond measure initiative to get your vote.
The smiling children. The aging classroom. The urgent appeal.
What has emotion? Vets? Homeless? Bad roads?
They will create sometimes odd combinations just to make sure they have emotional appeal.
What’s worse, the final language of the measure often provides subtle loopholes, which allow the school district or operating group of the bond to spend the money any way they want to.
Bonds are titled to sound great and solve big problems. But they mislead.
5. Bonds Have No Real Oversight. None at All. Free Money. No Accountability.
Most bonds advertise oversight… but the reality is different. Bond oversight is a joke, if it exists at all.
For example, school districts appoint bond committee members. I know. I’ve been on them. Districts often appoint people who are meek or quiet, or who will not challenge anything or ask questions.
What is presented is technical and sounds reasonable.
If you have time to kill (and want to be bored to death), attend a bond oversight committee meeting.
The committee members will go through the motions but have no influence or power. And no insight into what is really going on.
Often, the committee members just smile and nod in agreement with the reports given to them from the contractors and the auditors.
Members of the public can comment, but whatever they say has no impact.
After all, bond committee members are appointed by school boards, and school boards have some of the lowest voter participation rates.
It’s this way for all bonds. Free money. No accountability.
6. Vote NO!
There is no better method to stopping bond measure abuses than simply not supporting them.
On every bond on your ballot, vote no!
What do you think? Email me at [email protected].
FAQs:
Q: What are bond measures?
A: Bond measures are proposals that allow governments or public entities to borrow money for projects.
Q: Who will benefit from bond spending?
A: Contractors, investors, unions, consultants, special-interest groups, and government entities.
Q: How are bond measures marketed?
A: Professional campaigns use persuasive messaging and appealing titles to influence voters.
Q: What is the concern about bond oversight?
A: Some oversight committees may lack sufficient independence, authority, or accountability.
Q: What should voters do?
A: Voters should carefully examine each bond measure before deciding how to vote.
About Craig Huey:
Craig Huey is a nationally recognized author, speaker, and publisher of The Huey Alert and Direct Marketing Update. Craig appears on national media such as FOX, FOX Business, Newsmax and more. He also co-hosts The Huey Alert Podcast with his wife Shelly and helps business leaders, Christians, conservatives, libertarians, young people and more understand the intersection of faith, politics, and freedom.