| The California legislature did something good? Yes they did, and Oregon should follow. |
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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.
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