"Whenever the state has a budget issue, they immediately go for the low-hanging fruit and raid the redevelopment agencies." - Matt Fertal, city manager of Garden Grove, Orange County Register January 11, 2011, "City officials blast cuts to redevelopment agencies".
I read that and had to laugh. "Low-hanging fruit". Yes, that just about sums up what Redevelopment Agencies are all about. Who would have thought you could lump together redevelopment and cell phones (also on the Governor's proposed chopping block), but there you go.
The Fullerton Redevelopment agency has been skimming tax dollars that would normally be used for paying for public safety, education, and infrastructure for more than 30 years. In that time we have seen the Agency take over significant portions of our city's tax base and slowly erode a system that had been in place for more than half a century so that certain companies could receive taxpayer subsidized corporate welfare and sweetheart deals that were not available to many struggling local businesses.
In the end, the taxpayer looses. We think we know where our tax dollars are going and how they are being used, but do we?
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