6:00pm | Today’s Budget Conference Committee vote in Sacramento to approve Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed state budget bill is also a vote to eliminate redevelopment agencies, which does not bode well for the future of redevelopment in Long Beach.
The party-line vote saw Democrats favoring the governor’s controversial plan and Republicans fervently opposed. Redevelopment supporters insist that getting rid of the agencies would be unconstitutional, while others believe redevelopment to be tantamount to corporate welfare and is therefore expendable.
“There is no doubt that eliminating redevelopment agencies and using the funding for state purposes is unconstitutional,” said John Shirey, executive director of the California Redevelopment Association. “The plan violates four provisions of the state constitution.”
Approximately 40 percent of Long Beach lies in a redevelopment project area. The city receives additional property tax revenue, or tax increment, to rehabilitate these areas through efforts to eliminate blight, create affordable housing and boost economic development.
Mayor Bob Foster is firmly against ending redevelopment, and he recently traveled to Sacramento to try and sway lawmakers from cutting off tax increment. He had said during Tuesday night’s council meeting that it was difficult to determine where legislators stood on the issue.
“It’s very hard to distinguish what people are saying publicly from what they really believe privately,” Foster said.
The two-house Budget Conference Committee’s final actions earlier today send the matter, as part of the overall budget bill, to the Assembly and Senate for floor votes next week.