A state budget cleanup bill that would have saved Morgan Hill’s
redevelopment agency $2 million will likely not be reintroduced
during the California State Assembly’s special session next
week.
A state budget cleanup bill that would have saved Morgan Hill’s redevelopment agency $2 million will likely not be reintroduced during the California State Assembly’s special session next week.
Redevelopment officials from Los Angeles, San Francisco and Richmond are urging legislators to let the bill, which would have updated the data used to calculate state RDA takeaways, unceremoniously fail. The change would cost their agencies more than $22 million.
The July state budget deal aimed to close a $26 billion budget gap through program cuts, accounting tricks and diverting property taxes from cities and redevelopment agencies. This included takeaways that amounted to $10 million for Morgan Hill’s agency. City Manager Ed Tewes shortlisted five projects that will be be put off now, including the Butterfield Boulevard northern extension, Monterey Road median improvements and a traffic signal timing coordination project planned for Cochrane Road.
But the $10 million figure was calculated using 2006-07 financial data. This was the year before Morgan Hill’s redevelopment area shrank by 20 percent to its current 20-block area encompassing downtown.
The cleanup bill, AB 182, would have amended the bill so that 2007-08 data would be used, so Morgan Hill’s contribution would be just $8 million.
But, San Francisco’s contribution would increase from $34.6 million to $42 million and Los Angeles’s contribution would swell from $85.4 million to $100 million.
The cities argue the bill would translate to less affordable housing, fewer jobs and business improvements, according to letters city leaders sent to legislators.
Not to be outdone, Richmond argues that the budget bill would stop redevelopment projects in the city’s poorest neighborhoods and their RDA would have to default on its bond obligations, according to the letter a Richmond official sent to legislators.
Assemblyman Bill Monning (D-27) said he supported AB182 not only because it protected his constituents but also because it was more accurate.
Partisan politics got in the way of the bill in September when it fell four votes short of the needed two-thirds in the Senate, according to state records. The tally was 23 yes, six no, and 11 non-votes. Morgan Hill’s Sen. Abel Maldonado (R-Santa Maria) joined his party in abstaining on many bills, but had planned to vote for AB182 if it was reintroduced. It wasn’t.
Morgan Hill’s redevelopment agency brings in about $22 million annually through property tax revenues. This year, more than $6 million of it will go toward paying off the RDA’s $110 million bond, and the rest will go toward the agency’s general operation and smaller projects.
