The Emeryville City Council and Redevelopment Agency's Capital Improvement Program budget will be decided on in a study session on Tuesday, March 15 (time to be determined). Please consider attending and sharing what projects are most important to you.
Did you get a survey in the mail? Mine came today. Fill out the list of projects with the ones you would prioritize and send it back in -- just fold it so the city's address is on the outside and put a stamp on it. It must be received by Friday, Feb. 25, which is only one week from now!
Realistically, the amount of the CIP budget is going to be smaller than we had originally anticipated. Maybe you have read about how Governor Brown has proposed to eliminate redevelopment going forward. Well, if that happens business as usual in Emeryville will change, cutting back on projects that can be supported by redevelopment funds. The transformation that Emeryville has enjoyed over the last 20 years was funded mostly by redevelopment money. Redevelopment also pays for a portion (approximately 10%) of staff at city hall.
But the other side of redevelopment funding is that the property tax increment money that flows into redevelopment is money that would otherwise be shared with the schools, the county and the city itself to fund services. Tax increment money is defined as the amount that property taxes have grown since our redevelopment agencies were established (1976 and 1987 respectively), excluding the annual 2% adjustment for inflation. It is now about $30 million per year. This cannot be ignored, in my opinion. If redevelopment ends, so will the big projects, but we will have more flexibility in our city budget. And the state will let some of the tax increment funds remain to be used to pay back the debt service on the existing bonds.
So, like many other municipalities, we have joined in the "rush to issue bonds quick before our opportunity disappears" and the City Council voted on Tuesday evening (2/15/11) to issue bonds to raise somewhere between $45 and $50 million dollars. A chunk of that (approximately $17 million, although actual amounts are not determined yet) will be spent on affordable housing. Is this the last hurrah?
Maybe that is more than you wanted to know about redevelopment and the CIP budget! Hope you were still reading! Turn in that survey!
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
