Calif. Legislature to face redevelopment, water
Wyatt Buchanan
San Francisco Chronicle
12/05/2012
The California Legislature returned to the Capitol Wednesday for the start of its yearly session, facing a host of major issues, including another multibillion-dollar budget deficit and decisions on whether to fund high-speed rail, resurrect redevelopment agencies and whittle down a huge water infrastructure bond.
Gov. Jerry Brown will release his budget plan next week, but the Legislative Analyst's Office has already pegged the deficit for the 2012-13 fiscal year that starts July 1 at $13 billion. Brown has said his plan will rely on an assumption that voters pass his ballot measure to raise about $7 billion worth of taxes in November.
That means lawmakers will have to trim significantly less from the budget than they would without that assumption, though Brown also has said he wants automatic spending cuts if voters reject the taxes.
Lawmakers returning to the Capitol acknowledged they have hard work ahead. Assembly Speaker John Pérez, D-Los Angeles, stressed that the governor's tax proposal would raise only a little more than half of the estimated shortfall and said more cuts would be required.
But Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said if revenues continue to improve - and if voters approve the governor's tax plan - there may be no reason to make further cuts.
"We have cut a lot over the last several years and I think we have hit a tipping point," Steinberg said, adding, "My view is if cuts are necessary, they ought to be a very last resort."
Lawmakers will also have to decide whether to re-establish redevelopment agencies, whose abolishment was upheld last week by the state Supreme Court.
It's not clear whether redevelopment supporters, who are pushing for lawmakers to create a replacement program, will have the support in the Legislature to do so.
Pérez said the California Redevelopment Association and League of California Cities, which sued the state over the abolishment and lost, made things "very difficult" because of their unwillingness to compromise over the past year.
"They took an all or nothing approach," he said. "I am committed to finding opportunities for affordable housing and smart, targeted economic development, but the Redevelopment Association and League of California Cities will have to change the way they engage if they want to be successful."
Assembly Minority Leader Connie Conway, R-Tulare, also was circumspect.
"I think it's going to be an interesting conversation," she said, noting she has not seen any concrete proposal to replace the program.
