Yesterday, the California Alliance to Protect Private Property Rights announced that a prominent conservative Orange County political action committee has joined a coalition of taxpayer and private property rights organizations in calling for the abolition of California redevelopment agencies (RDA).

RDAs have come under considerable public scrutiny for wasteful government spending, eminent domain abuse and, according to independent state analysis, failing to increase the overall number of California jobs. In March, only one Republican legislator, Orange County Assemblyman Chris Norby, joined Democrats in supporting Governor Jerry Brown’s plan to abolish redevelopment agencies. Failing to generate one more Republican vote, taxpayer funding of RDAs continue.

Several Orange County Republican legislators that have been critical of redevelopment agencies in the past, now defend their very existence.

“GOP support for redevelopment agencies is an affront to conservative values,” said Family Action PAC chairman Larry Smith. “During these tough economic times, providing taxpayer funding for private development, sports arenas and luxury golf courses is not a good use of taxpayer dollars. It has hard to believe that Republicans are standing in the way of reform.”

In addition to diverting over $5 billion in tax increment revenue annually without any reliable evidence that they create new jobs, a California’s State Controller audit of RDAs concluded that overly broad definitions of “blight” expose private property to eminent domain abuse and invite wasteful spending of tax dollars on dubious redevelopment projects such as luxury golf courses. In addition, redevelopment funds were inappropriately used to supplement the general funds of local governments.

The Family Action PAC was formed in 2000 to focus on business, family, and social issues. The PAC supports initiatives and local and state candidates that will affect Orange County and California, and has served a critical role in the outcome of Republican primaries in Orange County.

The California Alliance to Protect Private Property Rights recently launched a statewide public education campaign to build public opposition to RDAs and ask GOP legislators to sign a pledge to abolish redevelopment agencies. The pledge calls on GOP legislators to renew their commitment to conservative values such as protecting taxpayers and private property.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 9th, 2011 at 10:50 pm and is filed under Blog Posts.