I read a great argument against using the Public Building Commission to fund school construction. It came from an unlikely source: the Peoria Journal Star. Of course, it was from the PJS of 15 years ago, about two years before the state legislature took away the PBC’s power to bond for school construction. Take a look at this editorial from December 1, 1991, page A8 (emphasis mine):

What would you think of a business that advertised a product or service at a specific price, and then charged you almost 70 percent more when you got to the store? You’d probably think you’d been misled. You might not shop there again. You might tell your friends not to patronize that store, either. Even if the product you bought was of high quality, it would be the principle that mattered, because you’d been lured to that store under false pretenses.

In a way, that’s what Peoria School District 150 has done with its school facilities expansion and your tax dollars.

When District 150 pitched its blueprints to the public 18 months ago, administrators said the expansion would cost about $15.5 million, the second largest capital improvement in the school district’s history. Through a series of eight public meetings, that number was repeated time and again. Hardly any opposition was voiced. The school board approved the plan; the district hired architects and began tinkering.

Suddenly the expansion of eight schools costing about $9 million became nine schools costing $13 million. Suddenly the construction of two new schools at a cost of about $3.5 million each assumed price tags of $7 million and $6 million respectively. Suddenly a $15.5 million expansion has become an estimated $26 million expansion (pending the Public Building Commission’s approval for the two new schools), the largest in District 150’s history.

District 150 can do this because, unlike virtually every other school district in central Illinois, it does not need voter approval to issue bonds to pay for new construction. That’s because it has a rich uncle at the Public Building Commission, which is subject to no one’s authority but its own. Examples like this one are why this newspaper has a philosophical objection to PBCs and the way in which they allow local governments to circumvent the will of the people who pay their bills.

School officials now say that some costs weren’t included when the original estimates for the schools were put together, such as site acquisition and demolition, electrical and plumbing work, architectural and engineering and contingency fees, etc. Again, the existence of the PBC allowed District 150 to give an incomplete picture of the cost of the expansion; that never could have happened in another school district. “We goofed up,” conceded District 150 Superintendent John Strand. “We . . . I . . . should have been more aware. ” That goof, whatever its motivations, has severely damaged District 150’s credibility in our eyes. What the district did was wrong, and taxpayers will pay for it.

The cost will be approximately $53 million in principal and interest on the $26 million in three separate loans over the next 15 to 20 years. A $15.5 million PBC loan would have meant a payback of approximately $32 million over that same time period — a net difference of more than $20 million.

Peoria taxpayers will contribute approximately 47 cents — nearly 5 percent — of their total property tax rate toward this expansion. That translates to about $94 annually for the owner of a $60,000 home. While the cost will be offset by the retirement of other PBC bonds during the life of this payback, that same homeowner still will pay about 17 cents more per $100 assessed valuation than he would have had the district borrowed just $15.5 million from the PBC. That’s a difference of $34 per year, as much as $680 over a 20-year payback period. Taxpayers who have been revolting over a half-cent tax increase at park district headquarters, or 8 cents at the county, or pennies at the city, have missed this larger increase entirely.

As much as the cost is the principle of the thing. We don’t deny that District 150’s expansion and building improvements are needed. We don’t doubt that the construction has improved the neighborhoods around these schools. We recognize that the city is picking up part of the tab ($2.6 million plus the land) for the early childhood school. We accept that the early childhood school, which will cost almost as much as a new police station, requires a special design for children with special needs. But isn’t $7 million excessive? We think District 150 should have had a better grip on these numbers before it pitched its plan to the public, and we think a trust has been bruised.

The school district is skating on thin ice. At a time when confidence in the public schools may be at an all- time low, when funding for public education at the state level is imperiled, when District 150 itself no longer has the reserves to weather a significant reduction in state aid, local school officials may very well find themselves a year or two from now asking voters for a tax increase for education, not for bricks and mortar.

Given District 150’s recent performance, school officials have given local voters all the excuse many will need to say no to that request. Only the kids will suffer as a result.

The Journal Star has no philosophical opposition to PBCs anymore (see their 2/17/06 editorial, “Let PBC finance school buildings”). Who knows what changed their mind. Some of the editors are the same as 15 years ago, but we’ll never know which one wrote the editorials because they don’t sign them. I suppose it helps them avoid accountability and charges of flip-flopping on issues.

As I was reading this editorial, though, I had to laugh at how much of it was just like today. The $15 million expansion ballooning to over $20 million. The unannounced modification of the plan leading to higher costs. Sound familiar? And just like 15 years ago, no one has considered how much the interest would be on $30 to $60 million in bonds through the PBC… yet. I’m sure it will come out in the paper after it’s too late, again.

I know it’s a cliche, but the more things change, the more they stay the same.