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The Senate Governance and Finance Committee considered SB 286 during its meeting on Wednesday, May 4.
The bill was authored and introduced by Sen. Roderick Wright (D-Inglewood) in response to the growing concern about the loss of redevelopment agencies.
Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed eliminating funding to redevelopment agencies and enterprise zones to help address the $25 billion budget deficit.
Opponents of Brown's plan to eliminate redevelopment say it would hinder job creation and the development of affordable housing projects.
Wright's bill is meant to be an alternative to Brown's proposal.
SB 286 has been amended to include redevelopment reforms supported by the California Redevelopment Association, the League of California Cities and other members of the Protect Local Jobs and the Economy coalition.
Wright's office said the amendments would tighten the definition of blight; prohibit agencies from collecting the school share of local property tax or tax increment in new project areas starting in 2012; limit the percentage of total land area of a jurisdiction which may be included in redevelopment project areas; prohibit use of tax increment for specific purposes such as golf courses and race tracks; strengthen agency reporting and accountability requirements; and focus redevelopment activities on priorities such as job creation, cleaning up contaminated property, basic infrastructure needs and affordable housing.
At the May 4 hearing state senators from Los Angeles and San Jose as well as prominent organization spoke in favor of the bill.
They praised its ability to decrease the need to increase taxes while solving problems for more than 80 percent of California’s population, who live in underdeveloped towns.
Nevertheless, opposition on the bill's benefits centered on such matters as encouraging debt without repaying it.
There also were questions about the bill allowing local fire and police departments to lose money to redevelopment agencies. Wright asserted that fire and police departments actually would receive more funding under the bill.
The opponents didn't appear to find adequate faults with the bill because the bill addresses most of the major issues, according to Gale Connor of the California Eminent Domain Report.
Connor writes that the proposal to cut funding for redevelopment agencies arose, in part, because there are questions about redevelopment agencies’ failure to report how funding is used, and the agencies appear to have no reliable or accurate measure to prove that they are creating jobs.
SB 286 would require that redevelopment agency reporting and accountability requirements be strengthened.
At the May 4 hearing committee Chair Sen. Lois Wolk (D-Davis) left the bill on hold while it's amended.
Wolk emphasized the need to address matters including allowing redevelopment agencies to take funding from special districts.
Questions that remain include whether Wright can address these issues in a bipartisan manner and garner enough county-by-county votes.
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