Letters: Now is not the right timefor Measure A bond levy

Interesting there is a campaign endorsing that now is the right time to approve $25 million in bond sales for the Del Norte County Unified School District's Measure A.

Are the proponents of this measure oblivious to the credit crisis our country is experiencing? One impact of the credit crisis is California municipal bond yields soared to their highest rates in a decade. What this means is municipalities will pay higher rates on the bonds they sell, i.e., the money they borrow.

Bonds are basically a loan, and just as a high-interest rate loan on your home will have high payments, taxpayers will have higher payments on bonds issued in this credit market. These are some of the worse times to approve bond measures and the short-term outlook for the credit market isn't getting any better.

With food and energy prices being what they are, this is clearly not the right time to tax Del Norte families further. Our schools just received money from the extension of county payments through the $700 billion federal bailout bill, which is a lot more than local families struggling to pay their bills can say.

It is also interesting contractors and consultants have been the largest contributors to the campaign, special interests who stand to benefit from this tax levy. I wish they would have expressed their concern for our schools by volunteering services rather than spending $30,000 to stuff our mailboxes with campaign literature.

Clearly now is not the right time. Vote "no" on Measure A.

Ron Ziblis

Fort Dick