For the first time this morning, state Sen. Curren D. Price Jr. (D-Culver City) put a number on the statewide incidence of alleged abuse that led to the downfall of the 400 mostly small-town Redevelopment Agencies as of next week:
Speaking from Sacramento, he estimated 10 percent, though he quickly emphasized Culver City was not among the culprits.
To the key question of whether there will be a next-generation redevelopment agency that resembles the present one, Sen. Price said it still is too early to say, though he strongly favors such an agency.
“Many of us in the legislature, on both sides of the aisle, realize we have to provide some relief in the interim until a new structure is in place,” he said.
Sen. Price sees two main potential components to a newfangled redevelopment group — affordable housing and inner city redevelopment projects, a description that does not sound very different from the old form.
“I am not sure,” he said, “whether the new formulation should be tied to a dollar amount or to specific kinds of projects, or link it to the kinds of resources that are available.
“I know this: It would be a mistake to abandon the tools.”
Reviewing the two declared motions for razing the agencies — unspecified, unidentified abuse of redevelopment rules and fresh, enhanced funding for schools — Sen. Price said that “particularly in our area, Culver City, redevelopment has been a valuable tool. The questionable uses of redevelopment funds are elsewhere.”
The senator was asked if he is convinced there will be a net fiscal advance for schools, who have been promised a dream-sized windfall of money if the Redevelopment Agencies were outlawed.
Sen. Price’s response could serve as the banner headline, the mantra, for the takedown of agencvies that was achieved, legally, a month ago:
“I don’t know,” he said. “I hope so.”
However, Gov. Brown has said that with new funding about to allegedly pour in, many of the current streams will be withdrawn.
So the benefit to schools remains clouded, as is nearly all of the issue.
