RDA – CALIFORNIA’S DEBT MACHINE
by Ann Onymous
With California in debt over $368 billion and the California Redevelopment Agencies creating more than $93 billion of that debt, the time has come to eliminate California Redevelopment Agencies (RDA). Redevelopment agencies take our tax increment dollars away from public schools and essential services; fire, police, libraries and public hospitals. You may have heard your city’s Redevelopment Agency aka your City Council brag about the number of jobs the RDA has created, but check out these numbers at the State Controller’s web site.
The Temecula City Council states that Temecula’s RDA has created between 2000 and 4000 jobs. The state controller’s data tells a different story. In the Annual RDA Reports from the past 10 YEARS, every single report lists ZERO jobs created. Would you be surprised to learn that, according to the 2008-2009 RDA Annual Report (the most recent report available), the Temecula RDA has created $514,533,921.00 in total indebtedness? The 2001-2002 Annual Report listed their debt at $51,321,707.00. The Temecula RDA managed to increase their debt by over 10 TIMES in just 7 years! It takes a special talent to generate that much debt with not one permanent job to show for it.
In March, the California State Assembly had the opportunity to eliminate the RDA by voting for SB 77. Every Democrat and only one Republican, Chris Norby- Brea voted yes. The rest of the Republicans including Assemblyman Jeffries voted no. SB 77 failed to pass by one vote! SB 77 will be brought back to the floor for a vote if just one more Republican vote can be turned, then we’re not gonna lose ‘er! Please call your Republican Assemblymen and urge them to vote YES on SB 77.
