The case has been on the fast track ever since the Legislature approved Governor Brown’s plan to end redevelopment agencies and divert their funds to state coffers. Now, local governments say that a loss at the Supreme Court could jeopardize many of the projects underway.
The Court, which has agreed to issue its ruling by January 15, will decide the future of as much as $1.7 billion dollars. That deadline is also the day that the first of two payments of the $1.7 billion comes due.
While many people have offered opinions on the case, no one seems to know how the Court will come down.
From the San Jose Mercury News:
With once powerful redevelopment agencies such as San Jose’s on the brink of extinction, the California Supreme Court this week will consider whether state lawmakers staged an unconstitutional raid on redevelopment coffers to help close a multibillion-dollar budget deficit.
The state’s high court will hear arguments Thursday in a lawsuit brought by redevelopment backers arguing the move to seize redevelopment money statewide violates a voter-approved ballot measure last year, which barred the state from taking away local government funding to pay its bills.
The prospects for California’s precarious budget and the future of the state’s 398 active redevelopment agencies hang in the balance.
Read the full article here.