Mayors Gather in L.B. to Support Redevelopment

Ceremoniously gathered at the heart of an urban core built on redevelopment funds, city leaders from across Southern California stood on the steps of the Long Beach Police Headquarters Thursday to oppose the state in its effort to divert money from city redevelopment programs.

Representatives from Long Beach and other cities with hundreds of millions at stake announced plans to support a lawsuit to overturn two state laws that will dissolve local redevelopment agencies or require the agencies to collectively pay $1.7 billion to the state to continue operating. Calling the new laws, which were passed with the state budget, a “ransom,” the officials said the bills would hurt job creation and the local economy.
 
“This is an attempt to take our destiny out of our hands.  The bills are unconstitutional--it’s plain and simple,” said Long Beach Vice Mayor, Suja Lowenthal, who left her Long Beach school board position mid-term to run for her council seat.

Passed as part of the state budget last month, the two bills would eliminate dozens of redevelopment agencies or require them to pay a combined   fee of $1.7 billion the first year and $400 million each subsequent year.  Should the City of Long Beach choose to accept the “ransom,” it would have to pay $34 million.

Filed by the California League of Cities, the California Redevelopment Association and the cities of San Jose and Union City on Monday, the suit charges that the legislation violates Proposition 22, the constitutional amendment that “prohibits the state from borrowing or taking funds used for...redevelopment, or local government projects and services.”

Lowenthal delved into how redevelopment agencies helped Long Beach secure the new courthouse, which is one-of-a-kind in California.  A redevelopment agency owned the land and it partnered with the City of Long Beach to bring this project to fruition.  The $490 million courthouse created 400 (temporary) construction jobs and will employ 800 people once it is completed in 2013 (it was not clear if this number was in addition to those already working at the existing courthouse). Projects like these create jobs and boost the economy, Lowenthal said, but with the passage of the legislation, “thousands of projects are on the chopping block.”

Designed to combat blight in mostly aging urban areas, redevelopment agencies have the legal authority to define parts of the city as redevelopment areas, and any tax growth in those areas each year goes to the city’s redevelopment agency for local improvement projects instead of to the state. Opponents of redevelopment agencies, including Gov. Brown, say the agencies siphon property tax dollars away from schools and public safety, and have had had no real spending oversight. Hundreds of millions have been spent in downtown Long Beach alone in an effort to spark economic revival. 

Besides Vice Mayor Lowenthal, dozens of mayors and city leaders arrived at the steps of the Long Beach Police Headquarters to show the public that they fully back the lawsuit.

Among the Long Beach representatives that attended and spoke were: Long Beach Redevelopment Agency Board Member, John Thomas; Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce Chair, Joanne Davis; and AFSCME Local 1890 President, Michelle Banks-Ordone.

Also attending was Signal Hill Mayor Larry Forester. He moved the crowd by showing his passion for this subject.  “What part of ‘no’ do politicians not understand?” he asked the audience.  “They are destroying our communities--eliminating the best tool we have,” he added.

Banks-Ordone provided statistics on how redevelopment agencies create jobs.  “The agencies support 304,000 jobs statewide and over 70,000 of those jobs are in construction,” she said.

In terms of how the League is going to respond to politicians in Sacramento who support the bills, League officials said its members will discuss whom to support in Sacramento. But, overall, efforts are focused on the elimination of both bills. It was also not clear were the laws to be tossed out how education would be alternatively funded. Long Beach Unified has laid off hundreds of teachers from what is the city's largest employer, and the school board had to increase the number of students per classroom among many cuts forced by state funding shortages.

Third District City Council Member Gary DeLong could not attend but commented that the city of Long Beach fully supports the suit.  “It is unfortunate that our state representatives once again are taking funding away from local government rather than manage their budget properly,” DeLong said.