Residents of the Orange Unified School District might get hit with a new tax increase next year to pay for school bonds.

The seven-member school board last month "unanimously approved placing a $200 million bond on the March 2004 election ballot," the Register reported. "A successful bond vote could make the district eligible for an additional $109 million in state funds."

The money would go for school repairs and possibly some construction. The cost to taxpayers: $157 annually for 30 years for a house assessed at $400,000.

The proposed bond has it roots in the contentious history of the Orange Unified School board. In June 2001, three anti-tax members of the board were recalled by voters in a movement spearheaded by school unions. That November, a "reform" slate of four members won a majority on the board with pledges to forge better relations with the influential Orange Unified Education Association, an affiliate of the California Teachers Association, and the California School Employees Association.

One aspect of the controversy at the time centered on how school funds were spent.

"Everything we predicted is coming true," Linda Davis, who was recalled from the board in 2001, told us; she recently moved to the Palm Springs area. "That's what you get when labor unions are running the show. I don't believe you can have responsible spending when you've got employees in charge of both sides of the bargaining table."

Kathleen Moran was involved in the school district for 17 years, was part of the team that negotiated school contracts from 1998-2001 and is a resident of Villa Park, which is part of the OUSD. She said the school buildings certainly "have physical needs currently."

However, she said, "I had done a study back in the early 1980s. There was a fund called 'deferred maintenance' back in the 1970s [to fund the continued repair of schools]. The district used to put a percentage of their budget into the deferred maintenance fund. Through the years that got eliminated and went to the employees instead."

She said the new bonds, if passed, would be "like taking out a second mortgage on the schools. They didn't take out money for repairs over time."

This really is just bad management of the taxpayers' money.

The 2001 "reform" slate promised not to raise taxes. For example, Board President Melissa J. Smith promised in a 2001 flier "an unequivocal commitment not to raise taxes."

She explained to us last week, "I'm not raising taxes. We're letting the community decide whether to raise assessments to enhance our education facilities."

Not really. Since voters passed Proposition 39 in 2000, putting a school bond on the ballot is tantamount to imposing it. Prop. 39 dropped to 55 percent from two-thirds the threshold for passing local school bonds. In Orange County in March 2002, all seven local school bonds passed; however, none garnered more than two-thirds of the vote, which means none would have passed without Prop. 39.

It's possible the bond could lose. But this is one proposal that Orange Unified district voters shouldn't let sail through the Prop. 39 opening.