County Aide Sees Bradley Tax Use Plan as Very Costly

Los Angeles County’s chief fiscal officer said Thursday that Mayor Tom Bradley’s plan to use downtown redevelopment money for low-income housing and schools would cost the city and the county well over a billion dollars each.

In addition, Chief Administrative Officer Richard Dixon said, the Los Angeles Unified School District would suffer tax-revenue losses from the plan that would be greater than the aid for children promised by the mayor.

However, Dixon’s memorandum to Board of Supervisors members did not close the door on future negotiations with the city. Such talks have been under way for weeks.

The Bradley plan envisions vastly increasing the amount of property-tax revenues obtained by the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency as it continues to rebuild downtown Los Angeles.

Old Buildings

In the long redevelopment process, the CRA has obtained downtown land, much of it occupied by old buildings, for comparatively low prices and sold it cheaply to developers. As downtown hotels and high-rises went up, land values increased, boosting property taxes from which CRA revenues are derived.

From the outset, the county has expressed concern that all the new money would be plowed back into downtown redevelopment for street widenings, parks and all the other infrastructure sought by new and prospective developers.

To meet those objections, and similar ones expressed by San Fernando Valley Councilman Ernani Bernardi, the city agreed, after a lawsuit, to spend only $750 million of new revenues for the downtown area, leaving the rest of the property-tax revenue to the city, the county and the schools for general spending.

But early this year, Bradley announced plans to ask the courts to raise the $750-million limit to $5 billion, which would mean a huge increase in CRA funds from future downtown construction. Half the money, under the Bradley plan, would be used for low-income housing and an after-school care program for children. The rest would be used for public works and amenities for the downtown area.

General Spending

Dixon said the Bradley plan would cost the county $1.8 billion in property-tax revenues, and the city would lose $1.3 billion in property-tax funds that would otherwise be available for general spending.

As for the schools, Dixon said, “the Los Angeles Unified School District’s loss would be $785 million, which is greater than the mayor’s announced expenditure of $700 million for the after-school programs.”

Dixon said the Bradley plan would deprive the county of funds that would otherwise be allocated to the courts, crime prevention, public health and public works.

Bradley was out of the city and unavailable for comment.