Amid criticism from representatives of cities and successor agencies, the legislature approved Assembly Bill 1484, the redevelopment budget trailer bill, yesterday. The bill includes provisions that streamline the wind-down of redevelopment while, critics say, granting new, and possibly unconstitutional, powers to the Department of Finance. 

The bill includes some features of AB 1585 (Perez) and SB 986 (Dutton). Those bills, respectively, would have eased the process of repayment of loans that cities made to redevelopment agencies and for inventorying and disposing real estate assets. 

According to analysis by the League of California Cities, several provisions of AB 1484 may be alarming to cities and successor agencies. Most notably, if a successor agency does not make a payment of property taxes by July 12, DOF can, by July 18, order the Board of Equalization to suspend the disbursements of sales tax funds back to that successor agency's host city. DOF can also impose fines of $10,000 per day. The League claims that this provision is unconstitutional because it essentially garnishes cities' property tax revenues for state purposes.