County RDA Projects Lone Bright Light in State Funding Grab
Faced with the most dismal financial prospects in anyone’s memory, the County of Riverside will manage to continue redevelopment projects already in the works . . . but the State of California’s money grab which affects local governments, school districts, universities and special districts is likely to bring redevelopment projects to a screeching halt next fiscal year.
This means projects like the North Shore Yacht Club renovation and the new Thermal Sheriff’s Station will move forward . . . but that is one of the few bright spots in an otherwise bleak financial picture.
The state budget proposal—not yet rubber-stamped by the Legislature—would chop $4.7 Billion from local governments, $6 Billion from K-12 and Community College education, and $3 Billion from the Cal State University and University of California.
Of the $4.7 Billion cut to local governments, here’s how those cuts translate to the County of Riverside’s budget:
Redevelopment Agency Funding $1.7 Billion statewide $22 Million Rivco
Highway User Tax (gas tax) Account $1.0 Billion statewide $53 Million Rivco
Prop 1A (“Borrowing”) $2.0 Billion statewide $45 Million Rivco
Totals $4.7 Billion $120 Million
The Prop 1A funds—allowed under law by the state declaring a budget emergency—would come directly from the Riverside County “rainy day” fund. The HUTA (gas tax) funding normally entitles the state to 12 cents per gallon, and local governments 6 cents. In this case, the state will continue to take its share and add the local share, for a total of 18 cents per gallon.
These budget cuts do not take into account the state’s $1.3 billion reduction to Medi-Cal, $1.2 billion to Corrections, $528 million to CalWorks, $211 million to In Home Supportive Services and $226 million to the “Healthy Families” program . . . and others. How these reductions—a mounting to more than $3.5 billion statewide— will impact the County is yet undermined.