California legislature did something
good? Yes, and Oregon should follow.
Oregon Catalyst by In the news Sunday, January 1. 2012
Oregonians In
Action
California abolishes
redevelopment agencies – Oregon
should too – stop the abuses of the eminent domain process
On Friday, the California
Supreme Court rejected a constitutional challenge to Assembly Bill 1X 26, a
bill approved by the California
Legislature that abolished the state’s 400 redevelopment agencies.
Over the years, California’s redevelopment
agencies have abused the eminent domain process hundreds of times, taking
valuable private property from California families and giving it to developers
to develop condos, “smart growth” developments, and other politically correct
developments that the market won’t support without massive taxpayer subsidies.
The cost to California taxpayers has been
staggering – according to the Institute for Justice, a group which has spent
years fighting eminent domain abuse across the country, the California
redevelopment agencies have siphoned billions of taxpayer dollars to fund these
redevelopment schemes. In the 2005-06 fiscal year
alone, California’s
redevelopment agencies received $8.7 billion in tax revenues!
These taxes normally would go to fund state
programs like schools, police, corrections, parks, and roads. But instead,
taxpayer dollars have been diverted to finance developments that few people
want, and that the market won’t support.
Last year, the California legislature had finally had
enough. Facing a budget shortfall of epic proportions, the legislature voted to
abolish the state’s redevelopment agencies and stop the siphoning of tax
dollars. Governor Jerry Brown signed the bill, and yesterday, the California Supreme Court
upheld the new law.
Oregon also has a history
of eminent domain abuse, although not nearly to the same extent as California’s. In Oregon, urban renewal
districts are a favorite tool of local governments to siphon property taxes
away from needed public services and towards “smart growth” developments
favored by the planning elite.
In addition, property taxes siphoned by urban
renewal districts are used to finance public transportation pet projects like
light rail systems and trolleys, while at the same time cutting back on buses
and other public transportation systems.
The cost of these projects is so high, and the
demand so low, that the private sector would never construct these projects
without enormous taxpayer subsidies. Whether they’re called redevelopment
agencies or urban renewal districts, these schemes have cost American citizens
billions of wasted taxpayer dollars, and hurt needed public services that we
all use.
In Oregon,
Oregonians In Action was able to put Ballot Measure 39 on
the ballot in 2006, to stop state and local governments (and urban renewal
districts) from using eminent domain to take private property from one person
and transfer it to another private citizen or company.
Measure 39 has passed and has stopped one form
of eminent domain abuse in its tracks. But it hasn’t stopped urban renewal
districts from taking taxpayer dollars, finding willing sellers, and building
things that the free market would never support, because the public doesn’t
want them.
Stopping redevelopment agencies (or urban
renewal districts) isn’t a partisan battle – after all, the California legislature is controlled
overwhelmingly by Democrats, and Governor Brown is also a Democrat. Instead,
it’s simply a matter of having the legislature live within its means, and use
taxpayer dollars for true public services, not developments designed to make
our land use laws (or California’s)
look good.
This is one instance where the Oregon legislature should take a cue from their California counterparts.
http://oregoncatalyst.com/13865-california-legislature-good-oregon-follow.html