Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "hd palmer"

City protests Brown's redevelopment plan

2011-01-22T01:58:59Z

Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposal to slash redevelopment agencies spurred a protest and press conference at the Convention Center Friday, bringing together Sacramento leaders and about 100 officials from cities throughout the state.

Chris McKenzie, executive director of the League of California Cities, said that cities may consider suing the state if it disbands redevelopment agencies.

Brown’s office contends that local services, such as schools and public safety, could receive the funding currently used by redevelopment agencies if the agencies shut down. But city leaders in Sacramento and throughout the state argue that ending redevelopment agencies would seriously harm jobs and local development projects.

McKenzie said the governor’s proposal was ”seriously flawed” from a legal perspective.

“We would hate to have to take the state to court in order to uphold the will of the voters,” he said. “But we will do it, if we are forced to do it.”

Sacramento City Councilwoman Angelique Ashby presented figures on how Sacramento city and county would be affected if the two local governments no longer had redevelopment funds.

The city and county would lose 19,000 jobs, and $170 million in redevelopment project funds, according to Ashby and the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency.

A loss of $1.3 billion in economic activity would also be incurred, Ashby said. Affordable housing projects would lose millions of dollars, she said, and the city and county would lose $129 million in state funds that were leveraged with redevelopment funds.

Ashby pointed out that the Boys and Girls Club in Alkali Flat and the McClellan Business Park in Sacramento County are redevelopment projects.

Sacramento City Councilman Steve Cohn, who also appeared at the press conference, said, “I understand what a tough job the governor and the Legislature have in balancing the state budget, but it is bad policy to cut the very programs that generate revenues for local and state government.”

In an effort to short circuit a possible state decision to cut redevelopment agencies, many California cities have acted to safeguard their redevelopment funds over the past several days, according to multiple media outlets.

The city of Sacramento has not taken any action to bypass possible state action on redevelopment, but Mayor Kevin Johnson said at his weekly press conference on Tuesday that the city should consider doing so.

Brown’s administration continues to voice its support of the proposal to throw out redevelopment agencies. It is time “for everyone to act as Californians first to address the state budget deficit,” said H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for the California Department of Finance.

He asserted that the governor’s proposal is “legally sound.”

In the first year of Brown’s proposal, $1.7 billion would help repair the state’s general fund, and the remaining $200 million would go toward local governments, according to Palmer and the text of Brown’s proposal.

In the second year of the plan, $1.9 billion would go to local entities, Palmer said.

Meanwhile, local players in Sacramento, such as the Downtown Sacramento Partnership, are worried that the proposal could stymie development close to home.

Michael Ault, the partnership’s executive director, said at the press conference that redevelopment funding has benefited Central City projects, such as the IMAX Theatre and the Citizen Hotel.

“We know first-hand the impacts that redevelopment has played in the progress in the Central City,” Ault said.

Mark Hedlund, a spokesman for California Senate President Darrell Steinberg, told The Sacramento Press that Steinberg doesn’t want to act on the governor’s proposal immediately, but the idea of stopping redevelopment funding is not off the table.

“He’s not going to pursue an immediate freeze on redevelopment activities,” Hedlund said.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

State to take millions from SHRA

2010-11-18T02:34:12Z

The city of Sacramento and advocates for local governments are cheering the passage of a state ballot measure that bans the state from taking or borrowing local funds.

However, the new measure does not eliminate the $4 million the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency owes the state in May 2011, according to the California Redevelopment Association.

California voters’ approval of Proposition 22 on Nov. 2 helps the city while the state continues to face budget troubles, said Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson.

The state is now looking at a $6 billion budget shortfall during the current fiscal year, said H.D. Palmer, deputy director of external affairs for the California Department of Finance. In the next fiscal year, the state’s projected deficit is at least $19 billion, he said.

“When I hear the projections of the state deficit going up a little higher than people anticipated, that’s not good for anybody,” Johnson said at his weekly press conference on Tuesday. “But (Prop. 22) allows us to have a little more comfort and security, knowing that they no longer are allowed to take our dollars to balance their budget.”

Palmer noted that Prop 22 will cost California $1 billion in the current fiscal year, according to the state Legislative Analyst’s Office.

“The total annual fiscal effect from these changes is not possible to determine, but could range from about $1 billion (in most years) to several billion dollars (in some years),” according to the Legislative Analyst’s report on Prop. 22.

Voters passed Prop. 22 with 60 percent of the vote.

Under the measure’s rules, the state can no longer take redevelopment property tax funds. It also bans the state from funding schools with property taxes from local governments. The state also won’t be able to use fuel tax revenues that go to local governments.

In one local government example, the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency was required to give $19.6 million to the state in May, said John Shirey, executive director of the California Redevelopment Association. In May 2011, SHRA will have to pay another $4 million to the state, he said. Even though Prop. 22 is now in effect, it has retroactive language requiring the payments to be made in May, 2011.

The California Redevelopment Association is fighting the state in a lawsuit that’s currently at the Third District Court of Appeal in Sacramento, he said. The lawsuit aims to reverse 2009 state budget legislation that allowed the state to fund schools with $2 billion in local redevelopment funds from most of the state’s redevelopment agencies, according to Shirey. The $19.6 million that SHRA paid last year and the $4 million it owes in May made up SHRA’s share of the $2 billion.

Shirey had harsh words for the state: “There’s no borrowing here; it’s straight theft.”

Photo by Brandon Darnell.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

County fears state may take local social services, public safety funds

2009-06-05T04:36:11Z

Sacramento County’s public safety and social service programs will be harmed if the state advances a proposal to borrow $2 billion from local governments, according to county spokesman Zeke Holst.

The county is planning cuts to close its own $180 million budget gap.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed borrowing property tax revenues from local governments as one of many ways to address the state’s $24.3 billion deficit. Holst noted that Sacramento County’s portion of the $2 billion would be $32 million.

Lending $32 million in county revenues to the state “would directly impact public safety and social programs,” Holst said. “We are watching the state very closely to see what they are planning to do so that we can be better prepared to adjust our services to our communities and minimize the impact of the loss of services.”

In order for Schwarzenegger’s proposal to be enacted, the state Legislature must approve it with a two-thirds vote. California Department of Finance spokesman H.D. Palmer said it gives Schwarzenegger "no pleasure" to propose to borrow from local governments.

Palmer noted that Schwarzenegger supported local government authority and the 2004 initiative Proposition 1A, which voters approved. That proposition ensures that local governments maintain control over their property and sales tax revenues.

However, the proposition enables the state to borrow the local government funds in a fiscal crisis. The proposition says the state must reimburse local governments with interest within three years.

The governor made the proposal because of the “severe recession,” Palmer said.

The city of Sacramento would also be affected by Schwarzenegger’s plan. Mayor Kevin Johnson said recently that the city could dedicate up to $12 million in “risk funds” to the state. City staffers wrote in a May 22 report that these funds “are reserved to cover city liability settlements over the life of a claimant.”

Sacramento County expects to release its proposed budget Friday, June 5.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.