Dissolution of Redevelopment Agencies
Facing a monumental budgetary crisis in California, Governor Jerry Brown supported the 2011 Budget Act which reallocated property tax revenue that was previously used to fund redevelopment projects, to go instead to local governments in an attempt to protect funding for public services.2
In the eyes of the legislature, California’s Redevelopment Agencies (RDA’s) were perceived to shift property tax revenues away from services provided to schools, counties, special districts, and cities.3 By eliminating RDA’s, it was believed that an immediate windfall for the state budget would be created thereby relieving a portion of the budgetary crisis.
As a result of the passage of the 2011 Budget Act and finalized by Assembly Bill 1x26, California’s RDA’s were terminated on February 1, 2012 after sixty years of implementation and often being used as a model for duplication in other states.4
Statement of Purpose
This paper provides an overview of the structure and purpose California’s Redevelopment Agencies, examines the property tax structure in California with consideration of the impact of Proposition 13, 98, and 22, and the consequences of this structure on the fate of RDA’s as determined by the California Supreme Court decision California Redevelopment Association v. Matosantos.
Further research will conclude that moving forward, some form of tax increment financing that was lost with the abolishment of RDA’s must be reestablished to create a feasible mechanism for private investment to continue in blighted areas in need of improvement.
A judicial decision, based on previous statues and case law, will be presented well as a proposal of action items to establish the future of redevelopment in California.
California Redevelopment Agencies – An Overview
The California legislature enacted the Community Redevelopment Act in 1945 to assist
The Land Reform Act of 1967 permitted the state of Hawaii to redistribute land by condemning and acquiring private property from landlords (the lessors) in order to sell it to another private owner, in this case, their tenants (the lessees). The Hawaii State Legislature passed the Land Reform Act after discovering that nearly forty-seven percent (47%) of the state was owned by only seventy-two (72) private land owners. That meant that only forty-nine percent of Hawaii was owned by the State and Federal Govermnet.The contested statute gave lessees of single family homes the right to invoke the government's power of eminent domain to purchase the property that they leased, even if the landowner objected. The challengers of the statue (the land owners) claimed that such a condemnation was not a taking for public use because the property, once condemned by the state, was promptly turned over to the lessee (a private ...
Proposition 30 (prop 30 or SB11) is supported by the schools and local public safety protection Act of 2012. Prop 30 is a tax initiative led by California governor Jerry Brown. Prop 30 is aimed at reducing forecasted budget cuts to public schools also higher education, by increasing the California sales tax from 7.25% to 7.50%for the next four years. It also will create three new tax brackets for taxable incomes. Incomes exceeding $250,000, $300,000 and $500,000 will pay more in taxes for the next seven years. With the extra money being saved will go towards adding more classes for higher education students. Also to help reduce California’s state budget, prop 30 should raise $6 billion annually form raised taxes.
...n, assistant director of the City of Los Angeles Housing Authority, was put in charge of the redevelopment of Chavez Ravine. He envisioned a public housing space for thousands of low rent housing units. The site of the redeveloped land was to be called Elysian Park Heights Public Housing(Fig. 1), here the fist inhabitants would be from the few hundred people evicted from their homes to make way for the public housing project. Frank Wilkinson states himself in The Documentary film Chavez Ravine: A Los Angeles story, He affirms, "We prepared certificates to every family (the certificate said) when the certificate was built you, and your family would be the first priority to get there, you can pick the part of the project you wanted to live in." This would prove to be the start of the lies and broken promises handed to the residents of the Chavez Ravine communities .
New York City is not only a tourist attraction, but considered one of the most expensive cities in the world to fund because of its superb security, overall popularity, and partly its dependence on Wall Street to pay high income taxes to fund social programs, such as those who help homeless individuals and low-income residents. Ever since Bloomberg's re-election in 2005 he warned New Yorker's that because of a gaping budget deficit the city may have to raise property tax and state tax. The only people who struggle the most from increasing taxes are those who are barely able to pay rent and other expenses, such as utilities bills. One of the reasons why increasing taxes affect individuals is because as property taxes rise the property owner has to spend more, which means his/her profits may be affected, thus increasing the rent of tenants (the most current increase was 4% in one-year leases and 7.25% in two-year leases). In the other hand residents that currently live in homeless shelters have fewer chances of finding an affordable apartment even if he/she obtains a job (Most of the jobs homeless shelters refuges receive are low-paying jobs).
Along with Gov. Perry’s decision to refuse significant portion of the expansion for the poor,
...he surrounding area are required (and thus get more funding from local property taxes), by law and Education Code, to give a portion of their funding to school districts that are “poor” in order to boost the “poor” school districts performance; this idea of taking from the rich and giving to the poor is why it is dubbed the “Robin Hood” plan (Smith, Schools are Reassigned to Robin Hood, 2011). This bill was the first in a long series of proposed bills that was ruled as a constitutional solution for the 1989 Texas Supreme Court case Edgewood v. Kirby, but it is also the reason for the not only the current lawsuit filed by approximately 600 school districts (both wealthy and poor), but also the 2003 school funding lawsuit (Texas School Finance History, n.d.). It has been ruled unconstitional several times throughout its history, yet it still remains in practice today.
As the lease of my apartment is coming to an end it had me thinking of achieving my own American Dream of home ownership but as I do my research I find the dream is far from coming true. I am sure that the issue of housing prices and rent rates are what most of us Bay Area residents talk about and debate. It is an issue that needs to be addressed by the officials of the area, city mayors, affordable housing committees, social justice activists,lawmakers, and even employers. Skyrocketing prices, low inventory, and investors’ bidding wars are not only pushing the middle and lower classes out of San Francisco and the Bay Area out but will completely eliminate them.
Peter Schrag presents the ills of California?fs current politics in an angry and persuasive tone. He says California used to be ?gboth model and magnet for the nation—in its economic opportunities, its social outlook, and its high-quality public services and institutes?h; however, California started to fade after the passage of Proposition 13, the initiative of tax limits (7). Schrag?fs work clearly shows what is the problem in today?fs California, and it is easy to understand even for those who have little knowledge of politics. By focusing on issues of ?gneopopulism?h which is easy to find in California?fs diversity, he succeeds in giving his readers the sense of crisis not only about California?fs politics, but also the national wide politics because California is the place ?gwhere the new American society is first coming into full view?h (23). Schrag says, about California politics, that: For nearly a generation, there has been increasing focus among scholars, politicians, and journalists on the growing gaps in California—ethic, social, economic—between those who exercise political power and the larger population, and particularly those who are the most immediate users of its public services. What has gotten little discussion is the dynamic of the plebiscitary process itself. While it?fs ad hoc in nature—each measure is decided by voters on its own apparent merits without much reference to the wider context—it has a larger cumulative effect through which statewide majorities restrict the powers of local political majorities, which are often nonwhite. Almost by definition, it is also a device of impulse that tends to be only marginally respectful of minority rights or interests, and that lends itself to demagogic wedge campaigns designed to boost voter turnout for other political purpose. (21) Schrag divides his project into five sections. The middle sections, ?gThe Spirit of 13,?h and ?gMarch of the Plebiscites,?h in which he carefully discusses each important measure in the last two decades, show why so many issues rose. In the first section, ?gGolden Moment,?h Schrag describes ?gCalifornia?fs heyday of post-World War ‡U optimism?h and how it crumbled. Citations from magazines prove that California was a really paradise even from the nationwide view. Schrag also notices that the demographic change deeply relates to California?fs politics in the last t...
As California continues to struggle meeting budget deadlines, politicians focus on budget cuts affecting education, health care, social programs, and pensions. Part of balancing the state budget requires politicians to review all programs which are state funded; this includes analyzing the costs of “incarcerating people who pose no threat to public safety” (ACLU of Northern California). If California lawmakers come together and re-evaluate the correction system as a whole, state funding can be re-allocated back into our education programs, health care, social programs and others. As it stands now California’s Correction budget will exceed state universities funding in the next five years (SFGATE.com Article Coll...
The legislative branch of America helps create the laws or legislation. Ideally, it works to create a society that is safe for all members. The State of California like the federal government has a bicameral legislature, in other words, composed of two chambers. The upper chamber is called the senate, while the lower is called the assembly. A unique process for the state level is that it allows for the initiative. This process circumvents the state congress and can create laws without their aide. In the state of California, every ten years, following a US census, which collects demographic information, state legislators draw redistricting plans for itself, California seats in the US House of Representatives, and the State Board of Equalization. There have been attempts to create a “non-partisan” redistricting commission, but this has been turned down by voters numerous times. Proposition 14, 39, 118, and 119 were all turned down by voters to create a non-partisan districting commission. Every decade a large portion of the state congress’s energy is spent on redistricting. In fact, two of the last four censuses, Supreme Court has had to step in to break a deadlock. In 1970, Ronald Reagan, a Republican, vetoed all together the Democratic redistricting plan. The Supreme Court had to step in and created its own plans for California to follow. Then in 1981, Democrats proposed redistricting as well as congressional delegation redistricting. The Republicans stopped this by adding referendums to the state ballot. Because it was too close to elections though, Supreme Court overturned these referendums in 1982. In 1984, they officially passed the new redistricting plan which was very similar to the original plans.
When states try to find ways to restrain from non-essential areas, unfunded federal mandates are at the top of the list. These mandates often force state and local governments to spend much more than necessary on everything from medical care to welfare to road building. A complex web of federal programs bind together the tree treasuries of the local, state, and federal government. As much as 25 percent of state budgets now comes from the federal government, and up to 60 percent of some state budgets is spent on joint federal-state programs.
Gray, Tom, and Robert Scardamalia. "Civic Report 71 The Great California Exodus: A Closer Look."
The problem however, with these “renewal projects” is that the implemented changes are never usually intended to benefit the long time inhabitants of these communities, these changes are intended usually, to push out the element of poverty that exists in many of these communities (which is a direct result of decades of neglect) in exchange for the opportunity to cater to a more affluent (usually less “ethnic”) demographic. In laymen’s terms, city planners, elected officials, prospective businesses, and even law enforcement, all converge for the purpose of removing poor people from an area by simply making it too pleasant and by exten...
...nts, which USC has dealt with more sensitively than with the Hoover redevelopment. A coalition known as UNIDAD (United Neighbors In Defense Against Displacement) has been very involved in this issue. Residents worried that after a drastic remodeling of the area, their rents would raise exponentially, forcing them to seek more affordable housing options elsewhere. Although USC offered a 2 million dollar contribution to aid low-income housing, UNIDAD demanded they provide a minimum of 20 million dollars, temporarily delaying the start of the project. USC agreed to meet their demands, satisfying both parties in the situation. This instance of the residents and members of UNIDAD defending their interests is exemplary of a veto group. The decision and realization of this plan, however, is indicative of the power elite exercising control, but in a more democratic fashion.
Regionalism is the act of looking at a populated area not as individual localities or municipalities, but as something greater. Instead of approaching our revitalization efforts to one area, the problems should be addressed regionally. This has been an ongoing topic of debate since the suburban sprawl that created communities outside of our cities first started. In fact, it has been somewhat over shadowed by the rising popularity of city revitalization efforts through public private efforts of development. City renaissance is only a small piece of what regionalism is about. Charles Clark, writer of the CQ Researcher article “Revitalizing ...