Agencies throughout state scramble to protect assets
Hollister’s Redevelopment Agency did not follow the lead of
other such agencies around the state that did last-minute shuffling
this week in an effort to keep properties and funding out of the
state’s grasp.
”
I wouldn’t say that this agency is scrambling to tie up a
lot,
”
said RDA manager Mary Paxton.
”
We are not going out of our way to spend all the money we have
beyond what’s in our budget. We’re following our budget.
”
Agencies throughout state scramble to protect assets
Hollister’s Redevelopment Agency did not follow the lead of other such agencies around the state that did last-minute shuffling this week in an effort to keep properties and funding out of the state’s grasp.
“I wouldn’t say that this agency is scrambling to tie up a lot,” said RDA manager Mary Paxton. “We are not going out of our way to spend all the money we have beyond what’s in our budget. We’re following our budget.”
That’s not the case in cities around California, which this week in some cases held emergency meetings to designate new funding for projects or transfer ownership of redevelopment-owned properties to cities in order to shield those assets from the state.
Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed eliminating redevelopment agencies to help close a $26.6 billion budget gap. He was hoping for the Legislature to vote on the issue this week.
Redevelopment agencies, which use a portion of property tax dollars to fund projects meant to eliminate blight, have grown over the decades and now divert about 12 percent of property taxes statewide. Brown’s plan calls for redirecting that money, after the first year, back to local agencies to fund schools, police, fire and other core services, though it will take many years to pay off all of the agencies’ long-term debt.
Paxton said RDA’s around the state dispute the amount of money that would be diverted to the state and possibly returned to local jurisdictions if the agencies were abolished.
Dissolution of the Hollister RDA would be another blow to economic development efforts during a time when there is little such activity locally, she said.
“We don’t really have a lot of resources, so this is one tool where we have some flexibility to do things,” she said. “We want a mixed-use downtown, a west gateway that will be a neighborhood and destination. When you eliminate the money to infuse that kind of change, then the General Plan becomes just another paper plan. It looks good on paper but it’s hard to make anything happen with it.”
Throughout the state, from Bakersfield to Santa Rosa to Salinas, redevelopment agencies worked this week to designate funding for projects or transfer ownership of properties to cities to keep those assets out of state hands.
Hollister officials chose not to do that, as the local RDA has already committed funding to projects such as the demolition and reconstruction of downtown Fire Station No. 1 and improvements to the west entrance to the city.
The $1 million in funding for the latter project, Paxton noted, “is not going to cover the total cost” of the necessary upgrades, “but it does put in place improvements that will set the table for change and development.”
She said other RDA programs, such as a facade improvement program, neighborhood stabilization efforts and funding of the Hollister Downtown Association and Economic Development Corporation, would go away if redevelopment agencies are abolished.
Programs like that, she noted, “are what redevelopment is all about.”
If the state does move to dissolve redevelopment agencies, those groups would be prohibited from spending any money that is not already part of a contract – hence the flurry of action by cities up and down the state.
Then, the future of each agency’s assets would be determined by a successor agency that would be in charge of liquidating formerly RDA-owned assets, such as the former Leatherback property on McCray Street and Prospect Avenue and the 400 block of San Benito Street, which includes the downtown parking garage.
“All of our assets would be liquidated,” Paxton said. “What’s not clear is what happens to the money in the housing set-aside fund,” which now funds affordable housing projects.
Pinnacle wire services contributed to this report.
