By admin 
The Los Rios Community College District is asking voters in Sacramento and Yolo counties to approve a $1.1 billion bond in the November election to fund repairs and facility improvements at its colleges, education centers and district offices. This includes repairing roofs, modernizing classrooms, upgrading heating and cooling systems, improving security and constructing new buildings.
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Measure H, which will be paid for by local property owners through an increase in taxes, needs a 55% majority vote to pass. The last time the four-college district tried to get a bond approved was in 2020, when a $650 million proposal failed to cross the required threshold.
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The second-largest community college district in California, Los Rios serves approximately 70,000 students across major chunks of Sacramento, El Dorado and Yolo counties and small parts of Placer and Solano counties.
How do bonds work? How will it affect me?
A school bond is a method of borrowing used by school and community college districts to fund capital improvement projects such as repairing campus buildings or building new infrastructure.
The principle and interest on school bonds are repaid by local property owners through a hike in property taxes over several years. It is estimated that Measure H will annually add $16.55 per $100,000 of a property’s assessed — not market — value to local homeowners’ tax bill. The tax is expected to drop off in 2051, with total bond costs including principle and interest adding up to approximately $1.79 billion.
Since the district’s previous debt obligations from bonds it passed in 2002 and 2008 are nearly complete, district staff said the net impact for local property owners would not be a hike in their property tax bills, but instead an extension of the Los Rios line item that they have already been paying.
What will the district do with the money?
In an extensive list in the full text of the bond measure, the district laid out the facilities projects that proceeds from the bond could fund. This includes repairing leaky roofs, providing clean drinking water and improving security infrastructure at each of its campuses.
For American River College specifically, the project list includes building new STEM, science and fine arts facilities and a replacement for Davies Hall after it was shut down suddenly in 2023. A hub for humanities instruction, Davies Hall was closed after state authorities concluded it was vulnerable to damage in the event of an earthquake.
At Consumnes River College, the project list includes constructing a new technology building and childcare center, expanding the stadium and building an affordable student housing project. For Folsom Lake College, the proposed bond proceeds could be spent on building a cultural center and expanding the athletic complex.
At Sacramento City College, the project list includes building or renovating facilities for music, theater and physical fitness, among other things. The district offices may also receive upgrades under the proposed bond.
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The funds are not to be spent on teacher and administrator salaries and other operating expenses. To ensure accountability in how funds are spent, the measure requires the appointment of a citizen’s oversight committee, annual independent audits and creation of a separate account in which bond proceeds will be deposited.
Who’s for Measure H and why?
Measure H is supported by five out of seven Los Rios District trustees, all four college presidents and the Los Rios College Foundation. The Sacramento County League of Women Voters, a nonpartisan political organization, has also endorsed the measure.
Supporters say Measure H is especially important as federal funding for education remains uncertain under the Trump administration. They say the bond will enable Los Rios to maintain its colleges, thereby protecting an affordable path to higher education.
“Without City College, I couldn’t have afforded college. Students need Yes on H,” said Sacramento City College Student Senate President Angel Binuya in a support letter.
Who’s against Measure H and why?
Longtime Trustee Robert Jones, whose term ends this November, has consistently opposed Measure H. His major argument is that the district does not need additional buildings when several classes have moved online.
“The instructional or curriculum rationale for the new buildings is largely absent,” Jones said in an opposition letter. “The measure is an ATM machine with no rational guidance or process that directs the selection of projects … a wishful grab bag!”
He had previously criticized the district’s creation of a subterritory of only Sacramento and Yolo counties for the election.
The district argued that most of Los Rios’ facilities were located in the Sacramento and Yolo region and it did not want to ask taxpayers in other counties to pay for buildings that were so far from them. Jones felt it was a way to exclude conservative voters in El Dorado County who would likely have voted against the bond measure.
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