SACRAMENTO — For Sale: Waterfront property, Marin County. Spectacular view of San Francisco Bay. Colorful history as state prison. Asking $2 billion. Desperate seller (State of California).
An ad like that could run in the classifieds if state Sen. Jeff Denham (R-Atwater) has his way.
The proposal to sell the 432-acre San Quentin State Prison site is one of several ideas being considered by the Legislature to streamline the state's vast property holdings and help cash-strapped California raise money as an alternative to raising taxes.
Republicans like Denham who voted against recent tax increases, and some other legislators, are pushing 10 measures to raise billions of dollars by selling underutilized property, including the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and parcels once intended for the extension of the 710 Freeway in South Pasadena.
But some of the proposals are running into a buzz saw of opposition. Indeed, a key state Senate committee is expected today to put the San Quentin bill on a shelf.
A week after the state auditor faulted some agencies for not properly managing surplus property and eight years after she urged an overhaul of the process, it's clearly still difficult for officials to let go of government holdings.
"There is a sense of proprietorship that grips bureaucrats and legislators," said Lew Uhler, president of the California-based National Tax Limitation Committee.
The state owns about 6.7 million acres of real property, including more than 22,000 structures, according to State Auditor Elaine Howle.
In her review last week, Howle said there should be one office overseeing decisions on which properties are surplus, but legislation proposed to accomplish that has stalled in the past. There is also little incentive for state agencies to sell their property because the proceeds typically go toward paying off state bonds rather than into agency coffers, she said.
Howle holds up one agency as a model for change: Last year, 476 surplus Caltrans properties worth $162 million were sold, she said.
Denham revived the idea of selling the 85-year-old Coliseum, which has not been home to a professional NFL team since the mid-1990s. The Coliseum and adjacent Sports Arena could fetch the state $400 million, according to an analysis by the independent Legislative Analyst's Office.
"Ineffective oversight and local infighting" have plagued the property, which has "fallen into disrepair and has lost several major tenants," Denham writes in his proposal, SB 29.
