It’s often said that trends in fashion, music and food begin in California, then spread to the rest of the country. But there’s one new California trend, involving school construction financing, that taxpayers in the other 49 states should avoid.

It’s capital appreciation bond (CAB) financing — and it has the allure of “borrow millions now, but let someone else repay a lot more, much later.”

The long-term financing practice began a few years ago when California school districts were dealing with tight budgets and tax-resistant residents, but still wanted to renovate buildings or take on new construction projects. District administrators and school boards knew that taxpayers would object to any increase in taxes, so they found a way to raise money without impacting current taxpayers.

Clever financial advisers from Wall Street banks came up with capital appreciation bonds and it was hard for school boards to resist. The appeal is obvious — borrow millions of dollars today, but don’t even start repaying the debt for 20 years or so, when school board directors who approved the deal will be long gone, and so might some of the current taxpayers.

One example: In 2009, the Santa Ana school district borrowed $35 million by selling CABs. The trick with these bonds is that no payments were due until 2026, so most current taxpayers didn’t object. But the problem is that when the $35 million bond is finally paid off, future taxpayers will have paid $340 million.

In California, it’s estimated that 40 school districts have taken on $9 billion in CAB debt. By the time those loans are repaid, they will have cost future taxpayers about $36 billion.

These too-good-to-be-true CAB deals bring back memories of “swaption” contracts that were sold to school districts in Pennsylvania and elsewhere by Wall Street investment bankers who promised the interest-rate swap contracts carried little or no risk and could make the districts some quick cash. The reality turned out to be much different, with most swaption deals going bad and districts spending millions of dollars to buy themselves out of the contracts.

Some people already see the dangers of CAB financing. In California, there are proposals in the Legislature to ban or place strict limits on the terms of school borrowing to prevent CAB deals from spreading further. Other states, including Texas, are also considering laws to prevent CABs from blindsiding future taxpayers.

Regular bonds used to finance construction for school districts or local governments typically cost $2 or $3 for each dollar borrowed. The ratio for the delayed-payment CABs is closer to 10 to 15 times the original amount borrowed. It’s crazy. But since current school board members will be long gone and current property owners will have moved or died by the time the massive repayment comes due for a CAB deal, they can be appealing.

Today’s taxpayers and school administrators in the Santee School District borrowed $3.5 million, but the total repayment of that debt when it comes due decades from now will be close to $60 million.

Capital appreciation bonds are alluring to cash-hungry school districts and irresponsible school boards. They are dangerous to future taxpayers and should be banned or strictly limited.