Updated Thursday morning.

Yesterday the Senate and Assembly considered AB 101, which is the budget bill that includes the provisions to eliminate redevelopment, per Gov. Jerry Brown's proposal.  

AB 101 fell one vote short in the Assembly. It had passed the Senate Budget Committee, 10-7, but, upon failing in the Assembly, it did not come up for a vote in the full Senate. While the Assembly voted on AB 101, the Senate deliberated on SB 77, which is a mirror of AB 101.

Legislators did, however, approve $7.4 billion in spending cuts. 

Both houses are expected to reconsider the redevelopment bills in the 11am floor session today. 

The California Assembly and Senate are expected to vote on the budget proposed by Gov. Jerry Brown. The trailer bill concerning redevelopment, AB 101, emerged from committee today. If enacted, it would codify the dissolution of redevelopment agencies and the winding down of their activities under "successor agencies" and oversight boards. Agency activities would effectively end July 1.

After weeks of stalemate and tough talk -- on both sides -- the California Redevlopment Association has announced an alternative to Gov. Jerry Brown's intention to eliminate redevelopment. The CRA announced today a compromise plan that would preserve the architecture of redevelopment while allowing the transfer of certain funds to schools (at the expense of affordable housing), thus easing the state's deficit.  

As the clock ticks down to an imminent -- but as yet unscheduled -- vote on Gov. Jerry Brown's budget proposal, localities and their respective redevelopment agencies have been taking frantic evasive measures to try to shield funds and properties from liquidation and transfer to the state. 

If Gov. Jerry Brown gets his way in the Legislature in the coming days, he and the state will face a conundrum to make a Zen master's head spin: Is it illegal to transfer funds from agencies that no longer exist?

The governor has thus far been unyielding in his effort to eliminate the state's redevelopment agencies. In doing so he hopes to recoup up to $1.7 billion to help offset the state's estimated $26 billion deficit. Negotiations are ongoing at the Capitol, with a handful of Republican legislators--the so-called "GOP 5"�still in discussions with the Democratic governor. A vote is expected any day now. 

As of Wednesday afternoon, March 9, here are the following results from local elections related to land use in California: 

Beverly Hills Measure 2P - Approved; Measure 3P - Rejected

2P Two Hours of Free Parking Initiative; approved, 3,168-1,963 

3P Three Hours of Free Parking for Residents of Beverly Hills, Measure 3P; rejected, 1,436-3,539

The debate over the fate of redevelopment has called into question the usefulness of redevelopment in places such as, say, Coronado or Palm Desert. But there is no doubt that blight still infects large swaths of the state's major cities -- and that those cities are deeply concerned about the fate of their redevelopment agencies. 

In response to the release of a draft bill that would make the elimination of redevelopment official, the mayors of the state's nine largest cities today sent a stern letter [.pdf] to Gov. Jerry Brown asking him once again to reconsider his intention to eliminate their redevelopment agencies -- along with nearly 400 others across the state. 

 As expected, supporters of redevelopment in California wasted no time responding to a scathing report released today by State Controller John Chiang. This afternoon California Redevelopment Association re-iterated its longstanding contention that redevelopment creates jobs, stokes local economies, and provides a net economic benefit to the state despite what Gov. Jerry Brown claims is a $1.7 billion annual drain on state coffers. 

Throughout the now eight-week battle over the fate of redevelopment, both sides have issued claims about the efficacy -- or lack thereof -- of redevelopment but have relied on scant data to do so. Today the empirical analysis of redevelopment has, according to the office of State Controller John Chiang, become quite a bit clearer. 

Five weeks ago Chiang initiated a limited-scope review of redevelopment and today released findings that are highly critical of redevelopment. Among other criticisms, the findings directly contradict claims that redevelopment is responsible for the creation of hundreds of thousands of jobs -- because, according to the report, agencies have done little, or nothing, to track job creation. 

With apologies to Sir Isaac Newton, we may finally find out what happens when an irresistible force runs headlong into an immovable object.