The county and city of Sacramento have contributed about $22 million to keep their redevelopment agency running another year.
To help balance the budget, state lawmakers passed bills in June that dissolved redevelopment agencies across California, but allowed local governments to create voluntary redevelopment agencies.
The county Board of Supervisors voted Wednesday to provide $3.5 million for the current fiscal year to the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency.
The Sacramento City Council voted Tuesday night to provide $18.3 million to the agency for this fiscal year.
The funding will allow the agency to continue with planned redevelopment projects, officials said. In Sacramento, that includes improvements on the 800 block of K Street, and the Grand Theater renovation.
The California Redevelopment Association, the League of California Cities and two Bay Area cities have petitioned the state Supreme Court to block implementation of the state laws and to overturn them.
State lawmakers, including Gov. Jerry Brown, have argued that redevelopment money often went to wasteful projects, and continued funding didn't make sense when core services are being cut.
Noted comment from Sac Bee: I thought the city was broke? At least they claimed to be. Now suddenly they have over $18 MILLION to donate?? Wonder why all layoffs had to happen if they had this much to spend. Just goes to show you what liars the city councilmembers are.
Read more here.
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The funds being contributed to the state are not coming from the city or county general funds, but from the redevelopment agency's tax-increment fund to the state--essentially, the redevelopment agency is paying from their own budget to remain a redevelopment agency. The money is being paid to the state by the redevelopment agency, not by the city to the redevelopment agency. The funds are tax increment (the difference between the original assessed value of the redevelopment area and its current value) from the redevelopment areas, which would otherwise go to general-fund uses that are backfilled by the state. The most recent budget deal eliminates that backfill, requiring that redevelopment agencies surrender the tax increment instead of using it to reinvest in the redevelopment area.
Other cities are doing the same thing:
LA votes to pay redevelopment money to state
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The Associated Press
Published: Thursday, Aug. 11, 2011 - 7:15 am
LOS ANGELES -- The Los Angeles City Council has reluctantly voted to send $96.5 million to Sacramento to preserve the Community Redevelopment Agency.
Earlier this year, Gov. Jerry Brown ordered the every redevelopment agency in the state to transfer part of their tax increment revenues or shut down. The deadline is Oct. 1.
The Daily News of Los Angeles (http://bit.ly/rcZ90r) says several city council members complained, including Tony Cardenas who said the city was cooperating only because there was a gun to its head.
The $96.5 million is about a third of the agency's 2011-12 operating budget and will be transferred in January. After that, the agency will have to make annual payments between $25 million and $28 million.
Dozens of projects had been stalled until the city decided whether it would pay.
Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/08/11/3831202/la-votes-to-pay-redevelopment.html#ixzz1UkfQlH33
what/where is the Grand Theatre?
Del Paso/North Sacramento
Arts District 1917 Del Paso Blvd
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