When the Governor tried to capture as much as $1.7 billion from California’s redevelopment agencies, he actually opened California’s municipalities to the debt burden that had been carried by the RDAs themselves. The total of that debt is nearly $30 billion.

That debt had been assumed and guaranteed by 425 redevelopment agencies. But now, that debt must some how be transferred, somewhere. With 7 days until the February 1 deadline, the question to be worked out is where, when and how. Some people in Sacramento have proposed their own short term fixes, but no consensus has yet been reached.

From the Orange County Register:

As the lights are fading to black for California’s 425 redevelopment agencies, their successors will inherit $29.8 billion in unpaid long-term debt,according to the latest figures from the state controller’s office.

And that doesn’t include the wild-eyed issuance of at least $700 million in new debt last year, when the agencies had a hunch they’d soon be dismantled.

Orange County’s 25 redevelopment agencies — with 38 different project areas — had racked up $2.2 billionin outstanding debt by 2010.

Read the full article here.