LA Redevelopment Agency Allocates $884 Million

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The city redevelopment agency voted Friday to allocate $885 million for hundreds of projects before it is possibly dissolved under an austerity budget proposed by Gov. Jerry Brown.

   The funding for infrastructure, affordable housing and cultural facilities was expected to be generated by taxes from agency projects through the fiscal year ending in 2016.

   Community Redevelopment Agency board chairman Kenneth Fearn said the hastily called vote was necessary after Brown proposed eliminating local redevelopment agencies and diverting the tax money to other uses.

   A message seeking comment from the governor's office on the Los Angeles vote was not returned.

   Redevelopment agency budgets come from retaining a portion of taxes generated by improvements within project areas. That money is then reinvested in other projects as long as officials can demonstrate the work is needed to counter blight.

   Fearn said the Los Angeles agency needed to keep improving neighborhoods and boosting employment but feared the state would redirect the tax money to other parts of California.

   "There's no means of assuring that the money gets returned to the city of Los Angeles" under Brown's proposal, Fearn said.

   Brown has recommended using the tax money for police, fire, schools and other county and local services.

   (Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)