By Steve Scauzillo, Mercury News | You won’t find the term redevelopment anywhere in Assemblywoman Nora Campos’ bill. Instead, the Silicon Valley legislator is offering cities and counties the next best thing: the powerful tool known as tax increment financing.
Under Assembly Bill 690, cities can form “job and infrastructure districts” (JID) that would sell bonds and finance construction of public works projects as well as turn old warehouses into job-creating businesses. As was done under redevelopment in the past, the “districts” would pay off the debt service by capturing the increase in property tax revenues, known as tax increment.
Cities and business groups are jumping at this newest manifestation of economic development power. Many are still smarting after the state Legislature and Gov. Jerry Brown ended redevelopment in 2011 and forced redevelopment agencies to liquidate their holdings and send the check to the state.
Campos’ bill may be just the first of many similar bills sent down the pipeline, even if the author and its supporters refuse to label it as a redevelopment redux. All eyes will be on Brown, who doesn’t want to see redevelopment power resurrected. Read the entire article . . .
By Steven Greenhut, Reason | In much of the country, the mere mention of the name, Jerry Brown, signifies the otherworldly nature of California politics. Many people in other states have come up to me and said something to this effect: “You Californians are so weird that, in tough economic times, you re-elected that retread from the 1970s.”