California Governor Jerry Brown
4:35pm | On Wednesday the California Legislature voted to approve a pair of bills within the state budget package that appear to signal the end of redevelopment in the state of California.
The first bill, SB 14x / AB 26x, calls for the immediate suspension of most redevelopment agency activities, such as the issuance of new bonds, entering into new contracts, acquiring or disposing of properties and any other actions over and above those required by existing contractual obligations. This bill uses Oct. 1 as D-day for redevelopment in the state of California; on this date all redevelopment agencies statewide would be dissolved and successor agencies would be named. County auditors would be required to audit by March 1, 2012, all former redevelopment agencies within their respective counties.
The second bill, AB 27x / SB 14x, allows redevelopment agencies that agree to certain provisions, including making payments into certain funds to help financially support schools and fire and transit districts, to continue to exist. Each agency choosing this route would be required to adopt an ordinance of compliance with the bill’s provisions.
The bills were first taken up by the state Senate Wednesday afternoon. That body passed the controversial two bills with the bare minimum number of votes required — 21.
State Sen. Alan Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, voted in support of the bills, while state Sen. Roderick D. Wright, D-Gardena, opposed the bills.
An impassioned Wright took to the Senate floor and let loose a storm of comments denouncing the bills.
“In South L.A., we call that extortion,” Wright said relative to the second bill. “You give me your money or I shoot you in the head.”
The bills were then shuffled over to the Assembly, where, about an hour following the Senate vote, a majority of Assembly members, including Assemblywoman Bonnie Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, and Assemblyman Warren Furutani, D-South Los Angeles County, voted to approve the bills. The first bill was passed 51-23, and the second bill was passed 47-28.
Each of the two bills on their face appear to contradict the other, and redevelopment supporters throughout the state have labeled the pair as unconstitutional, saying they were formulated at the last minute by legislative aides in closed-door meetings.
Lawmakers had until midnight to approve a slew of budget-related bills within the state budget package.
The city of Long Beach staunchly opposed the push to do away with redevelopment as was first proposed by Gov. Jerry Brown earlier this year. Elected officials staged press conferences during which they pleaded with the state to leave redevelopment alone and rallied residents to contact their representatives in Sacramento to urge them to support redevelopment. Some even traveled to the state capital to try and sway Long Beach-area state representatives into saving redevelopment.