Public Bonds Pay For Political Patronage: Watch Internet Video (6 min) with Jon Coupal, Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn. & David Tokofsky, Los Angeles Unified School District

    /24-7PressRelease/ - LOS ANGELES, CA, November 06, 2006 - Little known public bonds known as COPs (Certificates of Participation) are being issued by California cities, counties and school districts "to get a lot of cash up front to pay off their political patronage friends and then stick future generations of taxpayers without any voter approval of this long-tem debt;" according to Jon Coupal, President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association in a six-minute preview of a two-part (one hour) interview on the Full Disclosure Network program. that also features L.A. School Board Member David Tokofsky. This Internet video preview is available FREE, at http://www.fulldisclosure.net/flash/436-7_Bond_Money.php on demand, 24/7, as a public service.

Some of the points made in the video are:

* JON COUPAL When asked how taxpayers could be denied their right to vote on public indebtedness, Coupal said: "The law has been carefully crafted by those that have a vested interest in the process, those in local governments, political, elected officials, bureaucrats and of course the bond business, the bond underwriters, the bond counsels and bond marketers. They have a cottage industry and they get a lot of money out of it. The last thing they want is some voter approval process to screw it up."

* DAVID TOKOFSKY: When asked to respond, the Los Angeles Unified School Board Member says that the District's issuing COP bonds has never been challenged (for legality).

* JON COUPAL: "I think it would be something we would consider doing. I mean, we have always looked at COP bonds as a potential area for litigation because we believe, certainly in spirit, they violate the voter approval requirements mandated by the California Constitution (and Proposition 13).

* JON COUPAL:When asked why the LAUSD always seems to be out of money? Coupal said "the L.A. Unified School District has a budget that's higher, that's greater than 20 states, it's huge, it's monolithic. It is just a massive entity that we believe has ill-served the parents and children of the City of Los Angeles. If one add not only the operational funds, which works out to over $10,000 per student, per year, but adds on top of that the capital revenues available to them, the children of this district should be getting a Cadillac education and of clearly they are not".... The L. A. Unified School District continues to be a poster child for mismanagement and bad use of taxpayer funds."

Full Disclosure programs are billed as "the news behind the news"and featured on 43 cable television systems and the Internet at www.fulldisclosure.net Hosted by Emmy Award winner Leslie Dutton over the past fourteen years the Full Disclosure Network programs have explored police policies, politics, corruption and reform. Cable channels are listed by community and air times on the website.

Full Disclosure Network (tm) is an Emmy Award winning public affairs cable and Internet television program.

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