The roving television reporter Huell Howser stood on the bright green lawn in front of a new apartment complex in the city of Signal Hill and, as the camera rolled, gushed about the marvels of redevelopment policy.
"Your idea was to take one of the most blighted areas in the entire city and . . . do something with it?" Howser asked. "That was a tall order, wasn't it? Was it almost insurmountable?"
City Manager Ken Farfsing nodded.
"Without redevelopment this project . . . would still be a run-down area," he said. "Maybe even worse."
The California Redevelopment Assn. and its partners have put up $320,000 to help Howser produce 14 episodes highlighting the achievements of redevelopment projects around the state, part of an attempt to convince Californians that they should care about this little-understood arm of government that receives and spends more than $5 billion a year in property taxes.
But even with the famously enthusiastic Howser on their side, many of California's 397 active redevelopment agencies are headed for uncertain times.
They've been battered by state budget cuts that are slated to take nearly $2.1 billion during the next two years. This could force them to abandon projects and maybe shut down entire agencies. And the cuts come at a time when many of the oldest and best-known redevelopment areas, such as Bunker Hill in Los Angeles, are starting to approach their expiration dates.
"We are at a watershed moment," said John Shirey, head of the California Redevelopment Agency.
Some critics say it's time cities pared down their redevelopment activities and let the property tax money that fuels them go to schools and counties to be spent on direct services. Los Angeles County officials estimate that their general fund loses about $380 million in diverted property taxes because of redevelopment efforts, though proponents said that figure is overstated.
"If the state Legislature were asked to directly appropriate money for local shopping centers or any of the other endless private economic development that local officials like, they would never do it," said former assemblyman and Sacramento mayor Phil Isenberg, who championed redevelopment reform when he was in the Legislature. "Because the current state subsidy is mostly hidden, it continues. . . . You have to ask if it is worth the expenditure of massive state funds to continue the process."
