Part three
Re “Forget Agencies. Forget War. Forget Clean Air. Forget Green Air. Build ‘Affordable Housing.’”
And so we woke up this morning to the sparkling news that Gov. Bald Retread once again has been (temporarily) repulsed in his cunningly calculated campaign to reach into the wallets of all poor and affluent Californians to confiscate even more new taxes that will give undisciplined legislators a fistful of play money-like dollars to spend any darned way they wish.
Let us enjoy this abbreviated respite. Any day without new taxes under a Democrat governor is a day equal to a lifetime supply of orange juice.
Which brings us around to the Bald Retread’s other major theme scheme, to kill 398 hometown redevelopment agencies to feed the insatiable spending appetite of the state legislature, which, in the name of busywork, enacts thousands of un-needed new laws every year.
We Are Supposed to Build What?
You may remember that last autumn a minor — apparently not very serious — state “watchdog” agency caused a brief kerfuffel when it published a blacklist of alleged community violators for failing to build a prescribed amount of “affordable housing.” I don’t remember whether Beverly Hills was on the list, which could have been a dandy punchline. But Culver City was. There was a quick shuffling of feet and a brief rearranging of furniture, followed by a lengthy period of silence. Supposedly every community is obliged to build a certain amount of another favorite Democrat stalking horse. Smacking down redevelopment agencies has been a neat daily public relations vehicle for Gov. Retread and his handmaidens at gullible newspapers such as the Los Angeles Titanic. They keep themselves prominent in the public psyche — we want to help you, they say, by increasing your tax burden.
Evidently to break up the numbing dullness of plodding through a left-wing life, the Titanic has been hammering away relentlessly at one of their pet mantras, that all of God’s children should be happy to pay new taxes to feed the Democrat kitty and build affordable housing out to the ocean and up to the mountains.
Oh, yeah?
It’s news around here.
What Do You Say?
Earlier this week, I asked several officials around City Hall the following question:
What are the priorities of the Redevelopment Agency?
Said City Manager John Nachbar: “To reduce and eliminate blight. And to improve economic development for communities.”
Said Agency member Scott Malsin: “Its goal is to invest in the community in order to create economic growth, to generate tax revenue to support city services. Where it does it and how it does it is a matter of law.”
Mr. Malsin’s inquistor asserted that “cleaning up commercial blight is an agency’s No. 1 priority. Is that accurate?”
“The project areas were defined by criteria,” Mr. Malsin said, “and one was whether they were blighted at the time. If you are replacing blight with stronger businesses, then you are doing your job.”
To clarify a separate point, “none of the project areas,” said Mr. Malsin, “are zoned for residential. By definition, project areas are commercial districts.”
As with hundreds of other small and large California communities, Culver City’s five-person Redevelopment Agency has been scrambling ever since Gov. Retread’s agency-kill declaration the first week of January to preserve its raison d’etre, to protect its mission and legally guard funding for present and future rehab projects.
As for justifying the existence of redevelopment agencies, “they are the only job- and economic development-creating tools that local governments have. Culver City can offer many good examples of how investments have generated numerous returns. We look at Investments in terms of what they bring back to Culver City, sales tax, for instance. Remember, too, that for every dollar invested in Culver City, it brings back $7 to Sacramento. The Westfield (Fox Hills Mall) renovation is a great example of why the Redevelopment Agency should stay in business, both for the benefit of Culver City as well as Sacramento. Our total investment of $10 million has helped to generate $100 million or so in taxable sales per year, which means $1 million back to the city of Culver City per year and $7 million per year, plus or minus, to Sacramento, per year.”
And so, dear readers, what are the two magic words missing from the assessments of these smart gentlemen, “a______ h______” ?
Now what could that phrase be? Tell Gov. Retread and his sycophants at the Titanic.
(More interviews in the next installment)
