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Foes of California government buildings’ sale win court victory

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Opponents of the controversial sale of two dozen state government buildings won a significant victory Tuesday, when the state Supreme Court declined to hear a last-minute plea by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to approve the deal.

The decision does not officially kill the sale; a state appeals court has scheduled a hearing on the case next month. But the Supreme Court’s decision ensures that final approval must be made by Gov.-elect Jerry Brown, not Schwarzenegger, who has been the transaction’s biggest booster.

“The deal is now dead with respect to the Schwarzenegger administration,” said Anne Marie Murphy, an attorney for the opponents. “One of the primary goals has always been to get [the case] into January and get it into a new administration.”

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Brown has declined to defend the sale as attorney general. Spokesman Evan Westrup said the deal “will be reviewed” once he is governor.

The sale of the buildings, including the Ronald Reagan State Building in Los Angeles, would generate $1.2 billion for cash-strapped California this year, but critics have called it a long-term boondoggle for taxpayers. The state must lease back the buildings it sells for at least two decades. The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office said the transaction amounts to a 10% loan over 35 years.

Two former state building authority members, whom the governor removed from their posts, sued to stop the sale, arguing that it was an illegal waste of public funds. A San Francisco Superior Court judge ruled earlier this month in the administration’s favor, but the appeal has delayed the case.

Schwarzenegger’s attorneys, in their petition asking the state Supreme Court to intervene, accused the opponents of abusing the legal process and putting “their own petty grievances above the will of the people and the needs of this state.”

“For those who say that California is ungovernable, this litigation should serve as Exhibit A,” Schwarzenegger’s lawyers wrote.

In an unusual move, all of the justices on the high court recused themselves from the case. They work in one of the buildings up for sale. Seven appellate judges temporarily appointed as acting state Supreme Court justices decided Tuesday not to take up the case.

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shane.goldmacher@latimes.com

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