MARIN COUNTY — Officials at the Tamalpais Union High School District are deciding whether to put a tax measure on the ballot to upgrade their high school campuses, but the amount of the bond issue has some in the community accusing them of swinging for the fences.

District representatives are set to weigh the measure at its meeting Tuesday evening.

Redwood High in Larkspur is an award-winning school but at more than 60 years old, it’s buildings have seen better days.

“Our school, as you can see, it’s a little run down, especially on the inside. It gets a little hot sometimes and the classrooms are super small,” said Redwood High junior Ginger Howard. “And it’s hard to get enough state funding to fix things like this because there are other priorities, and we understand that.”

The Tam Union High School District is set to vote whether to put a bond measure on the ballot for March of 2024. The bond would raise money to upgrade the facilities at its three comprehensive high schools, including Redwood, Tampalpais and Archie Williams.  

“The bottom line is we’ve got some leaky roofs that need to be tended [to]. We’ve got old outdated heating and plumbing and cooling systems and electrical systems,” said the district’s Assistant Superintendent for Business and Operations Corbett Elsen.

But it goes far beyond that. New athletic fields and solar canopies are planned for all three campuses, as well as new classrooms at Tamalpais and a new $104 million cafeteria and commons building for Redwood High. There is a hefty cost for all the planned renovation.  

The ballot measure says it will raise $517 million in revenue, but if you add in the cost of the interest on the 30-year bonds, taxpayers will be paying a staggering $1.04 billion.

“We think that the size is too large. We think…we are concerned that they didn’t prioritize,” said Mimi Willard, president of the Coalition of Sensible Taxpayers.

The organization has taken up the fight to get the district to scale down the ballot measure. Willard pointed to the new cafeteria as an example of the district’s overreach.

“It was deemed by the district’s own metrics to be a ‘Priority 2,” she said. “So we would like to see the district focusing on the ‘Priority 1’ projects.”

Willard said the voters also deserve ballot language that reflects the true cost of over a billion dollars rather than just the amount of the bonds. She suspects that the district may be aiming high for the March ballot because of a large number of funding measures that are expected in November. But Elsen denied that Tam Union is trying to get all that it can before tax fatigue sets in.

“I don’t think we’ve swung for the fences,” he said. “We’ve identified what we need…in terms of what our community feels that we need. We feel we owe it to our community. They’ve asked for this, so we need to reflect upon what the cost of this is.”

The measure would tax property at a rate of $30 per $100,000 in assessed value. Elsen said that means the average homeowner in the district would pay $329 per year for the next 30 years. 

It will take a 55 percent vote to approve the measure, and an early poll showed 60 percent were in favor. But a later poll shows that number has been coming down. Whether the largest bond measure in the district’s history will pass now looks to be a toss-up.

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John Ramos accidentally launched a lifelong career in journalism when he began drawing editorial cartoons and writing smart-alecky satire pieces for the Bakersfield High School newspaper.

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Drivers in the San Francisco Bay Area pay more at the gas pump than anywhere else in the country – with a gallon of gas near a record $ 4.84 as the nation remains gripped by an inflationary crisis.

The average price of a gallon of regular fuel in San Francisco on Monday was just a penny below the highest ever recorded average – $ 4.85 – which was hit on Saturday, according to the GasBuddy website.

Last month, the average price of a gallon of fuel in San Francisco was $ 4.64. A year ago, the average price was around $ 3.37.

“Drivers are paying $ 1.50 more per gallon than they were a year ago,” AAA spokesman Doug Shupe told CBS SF.

“That means the person who has a typical midsize sedan with a 14-gallon fuel tank is paying $ 21 more to fill that tank today than they were last year.”

The United States has seen gasoline prices rise sharply in recent months, with analysts saying rising crude oil prices, tighter gas supplies, and increased demand are driving gasoline prices higher.

The consumer price index for October rose 6.2 percent compared to the same month last year – the highest since 1990.

Gas prices rose a whopping 59 percent year-on-year and total energy prices rose 4.8 percent in October 2021 and are up 30 percent year-on-year.

Fuel prices at a Shell gas station in San Francisco, California are displayed on October 21 above

The average price for a gallon of regular fuel in San Francisco was $ 4.84, according to the GasBuddy website. It’s a dime less than the highest average ever recorded – $ 4.85 – hit on Saturday. The above picture is from October 21st

Meanwhile, the average price for a gallon of fuel in California remains nearly $ 1.30 above the national average, according to the American Automobile Association

Across the country, Americans took a little break as the average gallon settled at $ 3.41 – a penny less since last week

Last month, the average price of a gallon of fuel in San Francisco was $ 4.64. A year ago, the average price was about $ 3.37

The price of fuel in California remains well above the national average, according to the AAA

Heavy rains in Northern California have hampered manufacturing capacity to further aggravate the pain at the pump, according to the AAA.

The average price of a gallon of fuel in California remains nearly $ 1.30 above the national average, according to the American Automobile Association.

On Monday, the nationwide average of a gallon of fuel was $ 3.42 per AAA. In California, the average rises to $ 4.68 – the highest in the country.

Hawaii has the second highest gas price at $ 4.34 per gallon. Nevada; Washington; Oregon; Alaska; Utah; Idaho; Arizona; and the District of Columbia round out the top 10.

A year ago, the average price of a gallon of fuel in California was $ 3.18.

In 2008, the price of a gallon of regular fuel in San Francisco would have cost drivers only $ 1.78.

Nationwide, Americans took a little break as the average price of a gallon settled at $ 3.41 – a dime drop since last week.

Since October 30, the national average has declined on nine different days after rising steadily over the past 31 days.

The national average on Monday is 11 centers more than a month ago and $ 1.29 more than a year ago. That is 81 cents more than in 2019.

Production at California’s oil refineries has been disrupted in recent weeks by heavy rains in Northern California. The picture above shows a downpour in Marin City, California on October 24th

US jobless claims are falling to a pandemic low of 267,000 – but there are still 10 million jobs left across the country

Wednesday’s consumer price index report comes as the number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell to a new pandemic low of 267,000 last week.

Unemployment claims fell by 4,000 last week, the Labor Department reported Wednesday, and the four-week average of claims, which offset weekly highs and lows, fell nearly 7,300 to 278,000, also a pandemic low.

Applications for unemployment benefits have largely steadily declined since the peak of 900,000 in early January, and are gradually approaching pre-pandemic levels of around 220,000 per week. The entitlements to a stand-in for layoffs have now decreased for six weeks in a row.

For the week ended October 30, 2.2 million Americans were on traditional unemployment benefits.

Yet companies across the country are reporting a labor shortage with 10 million vacancies.

Companies have now passed the cost of downsizing to consumers.

US consumer prices skyrocketed 6.2 percent last year as food, gasoline, automobiles and residential property catapulted inflation to its highest level since 1990.

According to the consumer price index, gasoline prices are up a whopping 59 percent year over year, while meat prices are up 24 percent.

Fuel prices also rose by 12.3 percent compared to September 2021 and by 59 percent last year.

Overall, energy prices rose by 4.8 percent in October 2021 and thus by 30 percent compared to the previous year.

They could rise even further, the Department of Energy warned, as temperatures plummet this year.

Food costs rose nearly 1 percent compared to September and 5.4 percent last year, with grain up 4.5 percent, bread up 24 percent, bacon up 20 percent and meat up 24 percent year over year.

Furniture prices rose 12 percent year-on-year, while washing machines rose 15 percent and sporting goods rose 8.7 percent.

Even used cars and trucks rose by 25 percent in just one month and by 26.4 percent over the year.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s retail prices report found the cost of bone-in ribeye beef nearly doubled from $ 8.71 a pound in November 2020 to a staggering $ 16.99 a pound last week.

It found that filet mignon rose from $ 8.42 a pound to $ 10.28 while fillet rose $ 4 a pound and T-bone steaks were also up $ 1 a pound.

And another report from IRI Protein Practice, which examined meat prices throughout October, saw less sharp increases.

Beef sirloin rose 28 percent to $ 11.20 a pound, ribeye rose 41 percent to $ 14.48 a pound and brisket rose 36 percent to $ 4.80 a pound.

As prices rise, consumers seek cheaper cuts; Ribeye sales declined 36 percent in October 2021 from October 2020, while the price rose 40 percent, according to the IRI.

Beef innards, which fell 4 percent to $ 3.59 a pound, were more popular – sales rose 17.7 percent.

The high prices were felt across the country, but according to the Consumer Price Index, St. Louis, Missouri, and cities in Georgia and Arizona were hardest hit.

Prices in St. Louis rose 7.5 percent year over year, while prices in Atlanta, Sandy Springs, and Roswell, Georgia rose a whopping 7.9 percent.

Prices skyrocketed 7.1 percent in Phoenix, Mesa, and Scottsdale, Arizona.

US household debt has now reached a record high.

The Federal Reserve announced Tuesday that total household debt rose $ 286 billion to $ 15.24 trillion in the third quarter of 2021 after weakening for much of the pandemic.

The consumer price index rose 6.2 percent in October 2021 compared to the previous year – the highest level since 1990

The consumer price index shows a price increase in all categories from used cars, laundry, furniture to groceries

Mortgage balances, which make up the largest proportion of household debt, rose $ 230 billion to $ 10.67 trillion at the end of September, reflecting rapidly rising home prices.

Total non-residential balances rose $ 61 billion, including a $ 28 billion increase in auto loan balances as supply chain issues led to huge increases in the price of new and used vehicles.

The Labor Department also reported Tuesday that its producer price index – which measures inflation before it hits consumers – rose 0.6 percent last month from September, driven higher by soaring gasoline prices.

Excluding volatile food and energy prices, wholesale inflation rose 0.4 percent in October from September and 6.8 percent year over year.

More than 60 percent of the total increase in producer prices from September to October was caused by a 1.2 percent increase in wholesale prices in contrast to services.

A 6.7 percent increase in wholesale gasoline prices also helped drive up commodity prices.

A U.S. Department of Agriculture retail price report released Friday found meat prices soaring

The price hike is being driven, at least in part, by the revival of the economy following widespread closures related to the coronavirus pandemic.

Many companies struggled to meet unexpectedly strong demand after the pandemic, creating labor, raw materials and goods and affecting traffic in ports and freight yards.

The result has been higher prices, and the supply shortage is expected to persist at least well into 2022.

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