My Word: Setting aside Fremont redevelopment money hurts city, schools

By Charlotte Allen

Posted: 01/20/2010 12:01:00 AM PST

(from: www.insidebayarea.com/argus/localnews/ci_14223501)

THE FREMONT Redevelopment Agency is preparing for a final vote authorizing the amount of money the agency can collect to be increased by $1.1 billion — yes, that's more than a billion dollars.

That's a pretty big sum compared to Fremont's annual budget for basic city services, which runs to about $135 million.

The redevelopment agency, which is run by members of the Fremont City Council, will accomplish this feat by changing one of its own rules that would have forced it to stop collecting property tax money from the Industrial Redevelopment Area once it had collected $400 million.

After that, the property taxes would have flowed back to its normal channels, which include the city of Fremont, Ohlone College and the Fremont Unified School District.

Property taxes are the single largest revenue source for the city, paying for about 35 percent of all the money the city spends on police, firefighters, street maintenance and every other city service. So any action that affects the flow of property taxes to the city has a big impact on the people who live in Fremont.

Property taxes also support the schools in Fremont. Without redevelopment agencies, half of the property taxes collected in Alameda County go to support our school systems.

Why does the redevelopment agency need this? To pay the interest on bonds it needs to fund its activities — the main upcoming one being the Irvington BART station.

Though the Irvington BART station may be a worthwhile project, we are in an era of limited budgets, and all expenditures must be carefully scrutinized. Money, even redevelopment money, no longer grows on trees.

What will suffer if the redevelopment agency is allowed to collect the sum it requires?

The city of Fremont, for one.

According to the analysis prepared for the redevelopment agency by Seifel Consulting, the city of Fremont will receive about $230 million in revenue from the redevelopment areas from 2012 through 2044, if the cap is not raised.

If the cap is raised, the city of Fremont will receive about $34 million.

Raising the cap will cost the city of Fremont about $196 million over 32 years, or about $6 million a year. This $6 million would be enough to eliminate the city's current general fund budget deficit, and hire about 14 new police officers.

Another big loser is our school system.

Under current rules, the schools would collect about an additional $560 million in taxes. Under the new rules, the schools will get just $77 million. That means our cash-strapped schools will lose about $483 million over 32 years, or about $15 million per year in this deal with the redevelopment agency.

You'd think that taking this much money from the city of Fremont and the Fremont schools to give to the redevelopment agency would cause some lively discussion in the City Council chambers. But, so far, it hasn't even been discussed.

It seems to me that when our city and our school district are cutting services and trying to pass new taxes, the council should at least take a careful look at a plan to move huge amounts of revenue away from the city and the schools into the redevelopment agency.

Charlotte Allen has lived in Fremont for 12 years. She's a retired software engineer who now has time for bird-watching and yoga.

Tags: Fremont, News, Redevelopment Agency, fund, redevelopment, school

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Permalink Reply by NoAsWS on January 24, 2010 at 12:38am

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Permalink Reply by Fremont Ringo on January 24, 2010 at 9:52am

Holy Momma!
This is a huge deal! I didn't realize what was at stake, as I had never understood what the "Redevelopment Agency" was all about. Until I heard about the proposal and started reading some articles about it. The article above by Charlotte Allen is very illuminating. Must read folks!

1.1 Billion for what? And that too borrowing it from the future non-existent revenues and taking money away from the much required general fund and schools? This is atrocious and unconscionable act/proposal by our nefarious and unscrupulous politicians.

Every Fremonter must read this to understand why we need to keep an eye on the crooks and phonies in the City Council and the City Staff. I don't pay taxes for this kind of government and mis-management. I don't want Fremont to be in the Red a few years down the line just because some idiots who ran the show in the government and the city office made some reckless decisions for their own benefit without any thought about the future!

We should throw the City Manager out of Fremont for coming up with this kind of proposals that are damaging to the City's future and to the people of Fremont.

Come on people, time to wake up and realize what is being stolen under our very noses!

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Permalink Reply by Fremont Ringo on January 24, 2010 at 10:17am

After reading the Redevelopment: The Unknown Government...I found the opening statements shocking! (reproduced below for easy reference)...if you find this shocking too, I hope you will read the entire article and also start participating in opposing the proposal from our City to increase the redevelopment funding to 1.1 Billion! To benefit private parties? To benefit our Mayor? City Manager and his friends? Say NO to this BS!

There is an unknown government in California.

This unknown government currently consumes 10% of all property taxes statewide - $2.1 billion in 2001. It has a total indebtedness of over $51 billion. It is supported by a powerful Sacramento lobby, backed by an army of lawyers, consultants, bond brokers and land developers. Unlike new counties, cities and school districts, it can be created without the vote of the citizens affected. Unlike other governments, it can incur bonded indebtedness without voter approval. Unlike other governments, it may use the power of eminent domain to benefit private interests. This unknown government provides no public services. It does not educate our children, maintain our streets, protect us from crime, nor stock our libraries. It claims to eliminate blight and promote economic development, yet there is no evidence it has done so in the half century since it was created. Indeed, it has become a rapidly growing drain on California's public resources, amassing enormous power with little public awareness or oversight.

This unknown government is Redevelopment.

It is time Californians knew more about it.

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Permalink Reply by fremonter on January 24, 2010 at 7:42pm

Holy Momma indeed, Ringo. Welcome to the fight. Keep reading, keep posting, keep asking questions - together we can get our city back and take it where it needs to go. Not no development - smart development. Increased communication and coordination between the City and the School District. Transparency and honesty in city government. We've got a long way to go, but we won't get there unless we try.

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Permalink Reply by Warren on February 4, 2010 at 11:57am

http://www.fremont.gov/archives/54/011210%20RDA%20Agenda-WEBSITE.pdf

5.6 - 7.0 million redev funds to build low income housing.

While 5.6 million can pay for 5 teachers making $93K per year for 12 years.
enough to teach a generation of kids from 1st grade through the end of high school.
you have can have your basic: math, english, 2 science and a foreign language teacher right there.

How will this 5.6 mil get paid back? we need to transfer the redev agency to kiva.

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Permalink Reply by BryanH on February 10, 2010 at 10:36pm

More discussions on Redevelopment fund at:

http://www.talkfremont.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1239506925

Is the city council going to make the vote soon to increase the redevelopment fund to $1.5B? What can we do?