Measure H’s $1.1 Billion Ask: Who Pays, What “No Rate Increase” Means, and How to Check Your Ballot

On Nov. 3, 2026, voters in a carved-out slice of the Los Rios Community College District will decide Measure H — a request to authorize up to $1.1 billion in general-obligation bonds for job-training classrooms, campus repairs, safe drinking water projects, and related facilities work at American River College, Cosumnes River College, Folsom Lake College, Sacramento City College, and district centers.

The ask is large. The household tax math is smaller — and easy to misread. Sacramento-area readers already stack state income tax, sales tax, and overlapping local school and college bond levies. Measure H’s pitch is that it will not raise the combined Los Rios bond tax rate above the recent peak. Critics say that framing blurs a rate freeze with a longer tax horizon. Both claims can be true at once. Voters need the distinction before they mail the ballot.

Hero photo: American River College’s Natomas Center — one of the Los Rios sites Measure H would fund facilities work for. Credit: Visitor7 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

What’s on the ballot

County counsel’s impartial analysis and the district’s tax-rate statement put the key numbers in one place for the Job Training, Affordable Higher Education Bond:

• Authorization: up to $1.1 billion in bonds
• Average estimated levy: about $16.55 per $100,000 of assessed valuation (AV) — the county tax-roll value used for property tax, often different from sale price or online estimates — framed on the ballot as “below $17”
• Annual collections while outstanding: about $74.5 million
• Final fiscal year of anticipated collection: 2050–51
• Estimated total repay (principal + interest): about $1.79 billion
• Passage bar: 55% of votes cast on the measure

Only property owners inside School Facilities Improvement District No. 1 pay if it passes. Renters get no separate Measure H line (costs may pass through rent). No sales or income tax.

SFID No. 1 is not “all of Los Rios”

Los Rios spans parts of five counties. The board formed SFID No. 1 on April 8, 2026, limiting the bond vote and tax to district portions in Sacramento County and Yolo County only. Outside that map: no vote, no levy. Bond proceeds are supposed to stay on SFID facilities.

That boundary matters for readers who assume “Natomas” equals one school district. Many North Natomas and Twin Rivers parcels sit in Los Rios SFID No. 1 even when not in Natomas Unified — and may see Measure H without Natomas Unified’s separate Measure D ($300 million K–12 bond, same ballot). Different district, tax base, and projects. Treat “Natomas” as a neighborhood label, not a tax jurisdiction.

Practical check: Look for Measure H on your Sacramento or Yolo sample/mailed ballot; if unsure, ask county elections or the assessor which taxing districts cover your parcel. SFID map: Los Rios admin office. District page: losrios.edu Measure H. County text: Sacramento County current measure information.

Wallet math: rate vs. duration

Los Rios says Measure H is structured for no increase in current tax rates, pointing to a 2025–26 combined Los Rios bond rate of about $20.80 per $100,000 of AV. As older district debt rolls off, the district plans to issue Measure H bonds in stages so the combined rate stays at or below that recent level while a new Measure H levy phases in.

That is not the same as “no new tax” or “taxes go away soon.”

An Elk Grove News Net analysis (Sept. 13, 2026) argued the mailer’s “no increase in tax rates” line risks confusion: Measure H creates new debt and a new levy; if it fails, existing bond taxes continue but should decline without replacement; if it passes, the combined rate may hold near the recent ceiling while taxation extends through FY 2050–51. District ballot materials acknowledge the measure extends outstanding bond maturity even while aiming not to raise the cumulative rate.

For household scale, use assessed valuation — not asking price. On a home with about $487,600 assessed value (an anonymous North Natomas–area roll near $490k), $16.55 per $100,000 AV works out to roughly $80–85 more per year at Measure H’s projected average rate — not the full property tax bill, and not stacked forever atop the entire existing Los Rios combined rate. Total repay of about $1.79 billion against $1.1 billion principal means interest is a material share of what taxpayers ultimately send in.

California’s Prop. 13 rules already keep many long-held homes’ AV well below market. Newer purchases often carry AV closer to recent sale prices. Same neighborhood, different bond bite.

Facilities case and accountability claims

Supporters frame Measure H as local money for aging roofs, drinking-water work, hazardous-materials remediation, and modern labs for nursing, public safety, skilled trades, STEM, and other hands-on careers — when four-year sticker prices dwarf community-college costs and state facilities dollars are unreliable. Ballot language cites public disclosure, independent audits, citizen oversight, no teacher/administrator salaries from proceeds, and funds that cannot be taken by the state.

Those are standard Proposition 39–era safeguards, not a guarantee every project on the long list gets built on schedule or at listed cost. County counsel notes approval does not guarantee funding beyond local proceeds if state matching money fails to arrive. Sale timing, interest rates, and future AV growth can move the actual levy.

Skeptics of California’s local-bond stack do not have to deny leaky roofs to ask whether another multi-decade GO authorization — total repay near $1.8 billion — is the right tool when households already fund multiple overlapping districts. Fair readers can weigh documented facility needs against the opportunity cost of locking in a new levy path through mid-century.

American River College main campus. Credit: 7 Zeta / Wikimedia Commons, CC0 1.0

Folsom Lake College. Credit: UncleVinny / Wikimedia Commons (via Panoramio), CC BY 3.0

Sacramento City College. Credit: Ronbo76 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

Bottom line for Nov. 3

Measure H is a 55% threshold community-college facilities bond limited to SFID No. 1 (Sacramento and Yolo portions of Los Rios). The average tax-rate estimate is about $16.55 per $100,000 AV, with collections anticipated through 2050–51 and total repay near $1.79 billion. “No rate increase” refers to keeping the combined Los Rios bond rate near the recent ~$20.80 level as old debt declines — not to canceling the tax or shortening the horizon.

Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026. Ballots are expected in the mail the week of Oct. 5. If Measure H appears on your ballot, you are in the SFID; if you live in North Natomas or Twin Rivers territory, do not assume Measure D answers (or replaces) the Measure H question.

Sources: Los Rios Measure H page; Sacramento County Elections current measure information / impartial analysis and tax-rate statement for Measure H; Elk Grove News Net, Sept. 13, 2026 (“Los Rios’ poorly explained Measure H tax claim could confuse voters”). Figures for average levy, annual collections, final FY, and total repay are from official tax-rate / ballot materials and should be treated as estimates subject to bond-sale timing and assessed-valuation changes.