The governor wants to eliminate redevelopment agencies and eventually transfer more of the freed-up property tax revenue to the county. But Supervisor Ron Roberts said he doubts the county will ever see that money because the state will likely suck it all up.
“Figure it this way, if the state isn’t going to end up with more money, why would they even be thinking about doing this?” he asked. “The state isn’t doing this to help the county. They may be using that as an excuse.”
The governor has also proposed transferring more responsibilities to counties. Roberts said he’s concerned about that too.
“The state is talking about, well you know, the county can do a lot of this stuff better than we can,” he said. “And while we agree with that, the state’s MO is to shift those responsibilities to us but then to cut off the funding streams.”
Roberts said everyone is suffering from reduced tax revenues. But he said the state’s problem is made worse because of structural problems with its budget. He said California is like a hungry bear and the county doesn’t want to be its snack food.
