$37.8 BILLION IN STATE BONDS ON BALLOT.

Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer

In an unprecedented transformation of the role that bonds play in government financing, voters will be asked in November to approve bonds totaling $37.8 billion.

Critics say Propositions 46, 47 and 50 have been placed on the ballot as a way to avoid tax increases prior to an important statewide election. They say state taxes will eventually rise to pay off the statewide bonds.

State and local officials are urging voters to pass the bonds at a time when state officials have proposed $6.2 billion a year in tax, penalty and fee increases to balance the state budget, said state Sen. Tom McClintock, R-Thousand Oaks.

The state is facing a $27 billion budget deficit and approval of the budget is two months overdue.

``The state's fiscal problems have to be addressed at three levels,'' McClintock said. ``In the long term, we have to restore a constitutional spending limit. Midrange, we must institute bureaucracy reduction. In the short-range, you have to reduce spending for new programs and for nonvital services.''

The state bonds will provide money for a variety of housing, water and transportation projects, after-school and other educational programs and a landmark measure, requested by Gov. Gray Davis, for a $26.2 billion bond to build new schools, repair older ones and relieve overcrowding.

Proposition 47 - the Kindergarten-University Public Education Facilities Bond Act of 2002 - will cost $26.2 billion over 30 years to pay off and will provide money to build and repair schools in the elementary, secondary, community college and state university systems.

``These bonds are imperative,'' Davis said recently at the annual conference of the California Parent-Teacher Association. ``The funds from the bonds will finance new schools, modernize existing ones and create 600,000 new jobs. It's time for the condition of our schoolhouses to reflect our commitment to our schools.''

Paul Ryan, project director at the Center for Governmental Studies in Los Angeles, said it's generally easier, politically speaking, to ask voters to raise their own taxes than for politicians to raise them for the public.

``It's not surprising there are as many bond measures on the ballot given this is a big election year for all state offices,'' Ryan said. ``Very few elected officials are willing to go on the record as having raised taxes two or three months before a state election.''

The other propositions include:

--Proposition 46, the Housing and Emergency Shelter Trust Fund Act of 2002. The bond will cost $4.7 billion over 30 years and creates a trust fund to provide shelters for battered women, housing for low-income seniors, emergency shelters for homeless families with children, housing with social services for homeless and mentally ill and military veteran home-ownership assistance.

--Proposition 50, the Water Quality, Supply and Safe Drinking Water Projects. Coastal Wetlands Purchase and Protection bond. The bond will cost $6.9 billion over 30 years to pay off and provides money for CalFed Bay-Delta projects, grants and loans to reduce Colorado River water use, purchase of coastal wetlands, river parkways, improved security at water facilities and grants for desalination and drinking water disinfection.