Instant Budget Fix: Abolish Redevelopment Agencies
Cross-posted at RonKayeLA.
Gov. Jerry Brown set off howls across the state with his assault Monday on Community Redevelopment Agencies and Enterprise Zones — the instruments that have so long been abused by local politicians to enrich developers by robbing the public of good schools and quality services.
Our own Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said Brown’s proposal to “completely eliminate the Redevelopment Zones and State Enterprise Zones is a non-starter.”
Added Christine Essel, CEO of CRA/LA: “Governor Brown is proposing to dismantle an economic tool that has a 60-year track record of success in creating jobs and stimulating economic activity across the state.”
That should be easy to test:
Are luxury hotels, luxury entertainment projects and luxury skyscrapers more valuable in economic and quality of life terms than cops on the streets and libraries that are open and programs in the parks for kids”
Does it help the working poor struggling for a better life in Boyle Heights to fill their neighborhood with housing for the city’s derelicts, mentally disturbed and hopelessly poor?
Understand how it works: The CRA takes over huge areas of the city and subsidizes development and then keeps the incremental increases in property taxes, often using eminent domain power to seize private property which it gives as a gift to private developers to build projects nobody wants except the people who profit from them.
Mic the Bear Speaks!
"Hey, it’s Mic," growled the voice on the other end of the
phone.
"Who?" I replied, not recognizing
the voice or the 916 area code number.
"Don’t you read the papers?" came the voice.
"Mic. The Bronze Bear that sits outside the governor’s office. Remember, Arnold
bought me in Colorado back in ’09 and shipped me to the Capitol. Now I’m the
only transition story anyone cares about."
A transcript of our interview follows:
FOX & HOUNDS DAILY: Why you calling, Mic?
MIC: Every journalist in the state is writing about my
future, but they never ask me any questions, even though I’m standing right
there next to them in the hallway, whenever they stake out the governor’s
office. So I thought I’d reach out and give an interview. And I wanted to give
a scoop to a web site that loves animals enough to put a couple of friendly
species in its name.
Here’s Mud In Your Eye
"Without the trust of the people, politics degenerates into
mere spectacle and democracy declines, leaving demagoguery and cynicism to fill
the void." Those words were uttered by
Governor Jerry Brown in his inaugural address on January 3rd. And while his comments were probably
primarily directed at the legislative process in Sacramento, they would also
have application in Los Angeles, where a career politician is trying to force
her will on the Port of Los Angeles, to the detriment of a project that is
critical to the future success of the Port.
The issue in Los Angeles involves LA City Councilwoman
Janice Hahn, who is trying to force the Port of Los Angeles to accept a
proposal from Gambol Industries for construction of a ship building and repair
facility at the expense and detriment of existing tenants at the Port. The controversy centers around the disposal
of dredge material at the site of two former dry dock slips in the location
Gambol wants for its proposed shipyard.
The disposal site was permitted as part of a previously approved Main
Channel Deepening Project – a US Army Corps of Engineers project (to deepen the
main ship channel to 53 feet) which is nearing its final years of
completion. The dredging project is
vital to the Port’s ability to handle the latest generation of container ships
and to fend off competition of East and Gulf Coast ports, which will escalate with
the expansion of the Panama Canal in 2014.
Tough Talk Can’t Hide Tax/Spend Budget
Cross-posted at CalWatchdog.
In his Jan. 3 Inaugural Address, Gov. Jerry Brown promised us a respite from the “smoke and mirrors” budgets of recent years, especially those of ex-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. So the budget he unveiled Monday, for fiscal year 2011-12 beginning on July 1, uses mirrors and smoke.
The main parts of the budget are $12.5 billion in what he called “drastic cuts” and $12 billion in new taxes to end the projected budget deficit of about $26 billion. The new taxes essentially would extend the “temporary” tax increases Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law two years ago; and which have not solved the state’s deficit problem.
Moreover, a recent study by three economists found that, over the past 37 years, nations around the globe reduced debt burdens only when spending cuts were on average 85 percent of a budget solution, with tax cuts only 15 percent. Andrew Biggs, Kevin Hassett and Matt Jensen wrote:
On average, the typical unsuccessful consolidation consisted of 53% tax increases and 47% spending cuts.