Forget the Wisconsin 14 or the Indiana 37.
What about the Culver City 23?
The tense question was handed to City Manager John Nachbar just ahead of last night’s City Council meeting:
What will be the fate of the 23 fulltime employees of the Community Development Dept., when, Sacramento sources say, Gov. Brown signs the document in the next several days that will vaporize the state’s 400 redevelopment agencies?
“We will have to wait and see what happens because I do not have a plan at this point,” Mr. Nachbar said. “It is too early to know.”
Perhaps it will yet be a bumpy ride for the governor and his ace strategy.
Despite Democrats’ huge advantage in both chambers of the state Legislature, Mr. Brown will need Republican support to win passage. A select group of Republican senators (see attached letter), blown off by the governor’s advisors, told Mr. Brown they still need to be convinced about his agenda because of the way he has treated them and their ideas.
Further, Mr. Nachbar and CEOs in other California communities soon may find that allies are scarce and sympathy is elusive. Friends in the influential media especially are invisible.
Two samples:
One of today’s most widely circulated stories is the latest apparently rushed report from the decidedly unbashful state Controller John Chiang. (For the past year, his name has appeared in print almost as frequently as the governor’s. He has kept busy issuing bulletins about his financial opinions and findings.)
Probably in a case of coincidental timing, Mr. Chiang, a Democrat who strongly supports Gov. Brown’s top-of-the-agenda strategy to dissolve all redevelopment agencies, issued a damning report on allegedly dreadful behavior by agencies just ahead of the governor’s intention to kill them off.
Fastest way for any politician to write a headline with his name in it is to charge that schools are being deprived of rightful funds.
He Is Our Guy
Specializing in generalities, Mr. Chiang, one of Sacramento’s premier left wing ideologues, said redevelopment agencies have cheated schools out of $40 million, and he named a victim list of those “misguided” agencies at least as long as his arm. The Los Angeles Times, in enthusiastic agreement with fellow leftist Mr. Chiang, was not even a speck skeptical, lauding his speed and thoroughness in a story carrying the irresistible headline “Schools shortchanged, state says.”
In this morning’s sarcastic lead editorial in the Sacramento Bee, the only daily in the Capitol lambasted redevelopment agencies for refusing to commit suicide (see below).
Cynically eschewing skepticism as vigorously as the Times, the Bee said that when agencies refuse to die mutely and insist on pushing back, they only are damaging their cause and helping Mr. Brown’s. How? They did not answer.
As for Mr. Nachbar, “Our expectation is that there will be a vote and the governor will sign,” he said. “But I also anticipate cities will immediately seek legal action, and I don’t know what that will do.
“It is possible a court will grant agencies a stay. Maybe a court will determine that eliminating redevelopment agencies is not legal. It’s possible the state may not be able to accomplish what they are trying to do.”
Meanwhile, 23 people in the Community Development Dept. are concerned about sending their laundry out. Will they be here to collect it when it is delivered.
“This whole situation is hard to contemplate,” Mr. Nachbar said. “I never have seen anything like it.”
From this morning’s Sacramento Bee:
Insiders vow lawsuits to save perks and pork
Angered that California might take away their subsidies and tax breaks while it deals with that pesky little problem – a $26.6 billion deficit – groups that represent redevelopment agencies and enterprise zones are threatening to sue the state and its taxpayers.
In so doing, they are revealing why Gov. Jerry Brown deserves even more support as he confronts these entrenched special interests.
California faces a financial catastrophe, requiring sacrifice from all sides. Instead of recognizing that crisis and offering some practicable ways to help keep the state solvent, cities, redevelopment agencies and enterprise zone beneficiaries are prepared to sue the state in courts, adding to the burden on taxpayers.
Businesses and industries that operate in enterprise zones are the most shameless. For years, they have benefited from the tax credits, operating loss deductions and other breaks that enterprise zones provide. Yet instead of giving back in a time of need, they are now claiming that California taxpayers are obligated to provide those benefits in perpetuity, or else be found in breach of contract.
Using the same logic, homeowners in Sacramento and other cities could sue the state for contract clause violations. After all, we were lured here on the promise of adequate policing and reasonably funded schools. How come the state and city aren't meeting their contracts with us?
As for the redevelopment agencies, they've done nothing but build enemies in the last few weeks with an over-the-top public relations campaign attempting to portray themselves as victims. Someone should do an audit and find out how much of this campaign is being funded by developers who have been direct recipients of redevelopment subsidies. Especially ludicrous is the League of California Cities claim that eliminating redevelopment would violate Proposition 22, which prevented the state from grabbing funds used for local transportation and other services.
As the Brown administration has rightly noted, elimination of redevelopment agencies wouldn't result in a state money grab. It simply would give locals more latitude on how to spend the money. If they wanted to subsidize bars and nightclubs, they could do so. But if they instead wanted to use the money for law enforcement, low-income housing or other local priorities, they could do that, too.
So let the cities and enterprise zones attempt to intimidate by vowing lawsuits. Their threats are only hurting their cause, and helping Gov. Brown's.
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