Redevelopment Agencies (RDA) divert the majority of property taxes collected in an RDA district to development, with the net effect of starving cities and schools.
At some point, the state realized how damaging this can be, and passed SB211. Under SB211, any minor change to the RDA forces the RDA to relinquish some of their sheltered money back to specific groups -- notably schools. This is called an SB211 amendment.
The stadium subsidy would require the RDA to borrow $65 million, thus forcing them to do an RDA amendment.
SB211 doesn't require a stadium. In fact, the RDA could pass an SB211 amendment today, triggering those pass-through payments, but has chosen not to do that.
Moreover, if the RDA borrows more money, they will not be able to repay their RDA debt early (which the city is currently on track to do in 2020.) Once the debt is paid off and property taxes revert to normal distribution, schools will actually get significantly more than they get with SB211.
So, if you take the long view, an SB211 amendment would not be good for the schools. But if you feel the schools are really hurting today, and that they need a near term injection of cash, you don't need a stadium. You just need to pass an SB211 amendment.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
When I bought my house in Santa Clara 11 years ago the realtor told me that the city had a reputation of being well run, safe, and overall a generally good place to live. EXCEPT that the school distict was its Achilles.
Since then, I have seen several professional couples sell homes in SC and move to adjacent cities for better schools.
The fact is that there is a real demand for another Milliken type "open" school whose API scores show that SC students can compete with anyone. I just wish the Council would wake up to the fact that a bad stadium deal turns a city into a laughingstock and that below average schools hurt property values and prestige of the city.
Who needs better schools?
If the stadium is built according to the desires of our City Council, there will be plenty of low paying jobs that won't require more than a grade school education:
-parking lot attendants
-fast food attendants
-bleachers attendants
-waiters to serve food and drink in the private boxes of the Yorks
-janitors to clean up the messes of the rowdy fans
So perhaps we should follow the dictates of our City Council and help turn Santa Clara into the third world city they want it to be.
Post a Comment