ALAN LOWENTHAL REVEALS SUPPORT FOR GOVERNOR’S PHASEOUT OF RDA’S
By LBReport.com
State Senator Alan Lowenthal told a combined meeting of the Senate and Assembly budget committees that he supports Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposal to phase out local Redevelopment agencies (RDA).
Brown had presented his budget proposal to the committee and was still seated at the witness table when Lowenthal revealed his position.
“I support your initiative on the elimination of Redevelopment, not because I don’t see the importance of it, but I understand we have to prioritize,” said Lowenthal. “We cannot keep subsidizing Redevelopment agencies by backfilling schools and counties and so forth. That is not really necessarily the role that we should be doing.”
Noting that the political careers of many Sacramento legislators—his own included—began in local government, Lowenthal added that his support for the elimination of RDAs came after discussions “with my local counterparts that we would work together in the future on what might be possible to replace it.”
Lowenthal pointed out to Brown that the relationship among various levels of government is quite strained.
“There has been a tremendous lack of trust between local government and the state government as we move forward,” Lowenthal said.
Brown replied, “There’s a lot of trust relationships that we need to repair, particularly the voters.”
4 Comments
Good for Alan!! Redevelopment is a treasure trove for local politicians (read campaign contributions from developers) but not for the taxpayers. Much money is spent on business development that merely aids Cities in fighting with each other for that business, thus a zero sum game where lots of money is spent and no one comes out ahead.
Welp… there goes my hopes and dreams for an old time trolley car from Walmart to the pike. I was hoping for that old-timey San Francisco look and feel that would attract white people from belmont shore back to downtown, which might in turn attract a franchisee from Sears to plop down at the old Borders warehouse, and make an american go of it. Remember Sears?
Sometimes a fantasy is all you need.
Absolutely agree. Long Beach has nothing worthy to show for the money spent by the RDA. Just bad art, a vacant Pine Ave, and empty lots.
What a joke – termed out all will do everything he can to get that appointment to the high speed rail commission…even the right thing, as in this case.