Partisan politics got in the way of a budget cleanup bill that
would have saved Morgan Hill $2 million when it fell four votes
short of the needed two-third majority.
Partisan politics got in the way of a budget cleanup bill that would have saved Morgan Hill $2 million when it fell four votes short of the needed two-third majority.
The final tally on AB 182 was 23 yes, six no, and 11 non-votes. Morgan Hill’s Sen. Abel Maldonado (R-Santa Maria) was among the non-voting Sept. 11.
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 redevelopment agency takeaways that amounted to $10 million for Morgan Hill. But that 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 would have amended the bill so that 2007-08 data would be used, so Morgan Hill’s contribution would be just $8 million. The RDA brings in about $22 million annually through property tax revenues. 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.
“We are disappointed that the opportunity to clean up the RDA law by requiring use of the most current data did not pass,” City Manager Ed Tewes said. “It was significant. But our bill got caught up in unrelated, last minute political maneuvering.”
Jody Fujii, spokeswoman for Assemblyman Bill Monning (D-27), who sat on the joint budget committee that devised the bill, said Monning was “truly disappointed that Republicans could not find it within themselves to help the city of Morgan Hill.”
Maldonado joined his party in abstaining from voting on bills that needed a two-thirds majority to pass Friday, the last day of the California Legislature’s regular session. Republicans were abstaining until three pet issues of theirs passed, but after discovering that Republicans wouldn’t be getting all three of these, Maldonado broke from his party and started voting for those bills that were reintroduced. But the cleanup bill was one of two that was not reintroduced. As it were, though, all the reintroduced bills still did not pass because Maldonado was the only one to switch his vote to yes and so they still fell short of the two-thirds majority needed, said Brooke Armor, the senator’s spokeswoman said.
Maldonado said he wasn’t sure why the cleanup bill didn’t come up again.
“I was there until 5 a.m. We’re all like zombies in there,” he said.
Sen. Denise Ducheny (D-San Diego) was the person in charge of reintroducing bills that night.
“In order for the (cleanup bill) to pass it would have needed a two-thirds vote, and that’s why it wasn’t brought forward again,” said John Ferrera, Ducheny’s Chief of Staff. “We took the Republicans’ assurances that they would not vote for two-thirds bills at face value.”
Maldonado said he hopes the bills come back during the special session, so he can push for the cleanup bill to pass.
Mayor Steve Tate said while Monning had done everything in his power to make the cleanup bill possible, Maldonado never committed to supporting the bill and hasn’t yet responded to city officials’ inquiries about it.
“(Mayor Steve) Tate can be assured I’ll keep an eye on this bill,” Maldonado said.
Tewes acknowledged that it’s still possible that the bill could pass, but he’s proceeding as though $10 million will be taken by the state in November and will advise the City Council as such during the body’s meeting Wednesday.
Tate said he would keep in touch with the legislators, but “time is not on our side, though.”
