Around the Halls: Cutting the Deficit, CRA Transfers, and Tourism Marketing
Ed Fuentes
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — The city's looming deficits will weigh heavily on meetings this week, while CRA transfers and the creation of a tourism marketing district also find agenda spots.
MONDAY: Budget and Finance committee meets twice, first in a morning session at City Hall and then in the evening at the West L.A. Municipal Building.
Eliminating the 2010-2011 deficit is the focus of the morning meeting. CF 10-0600-S57 is a report from the City Controller on funding restrictions relating to money borrowed from the reserve fund, CF 10-0600-S56 is a memo from the Mayor outlining spending controls, and CF 10-0600-S61 is a pair of reports from the CAO's office on options to cut the deficit going forward.
The evening session is focused on presentations of the current budget situation, the upcoming fiscal year and taking public comments.
TUESDAY: Council meets, as do three committees.
Renewal of the Little Tokyo Business Improvement District goes to Council as CF 10-1958 for a first consideration.
$1 million in gap financing for SRO Housing Corp's Gateway Apartments is at Council as CF 11-0345.
The CRA wants to apply for $250,000 from Caltrans for pedestrian improvements on Bunker Hill, funds that would go toward connecting the forthcoming Regional Connector station and the Broad museum. The application approval goes to Council as CF 11-0418.
The city will take possession of land and partial ownership of structures across Downtown under the terms of CF 11-0086-S1, which is at Council. The parcels were owned by the CRA.
The CRA's computers and furniture are to be transferred to the City for $1 under CF 11-0435, also at Council.
The Los Angeles Tourism Marketing District is a proposed citywide BID that would encompass all hotels and motels with more than 50 rooms. Under the proposal that goes to Jobs & Business committee as CF 11-0378, the district would raise $11.5 million annually for marketing and sales support, funds that would be spent by LA Inc.
The Historic Downtown BID will add four properties, including the PE Lofts at 6th and Main, under CF 10-1083. The changes will eliminate gaps between the Historic Downtown and Fashion District BIDs.
WEDNESDAY: Council returns, as do four committees.
Now that the 2010 Census data has been released, the City Council wants to know what its next steps are. CF 11-0187 is at Rules & Elections committee, and asks the CLA to report on the start of the redistricting process.
KJ1 on March 21, 2011, at 11:13PM – #1
Actually, I think more important than the survey is that new residents to DT consider all the new taxes being proposed that would directly affect them. Do your homework. The streetcar project is proposing residents on the route pick up the tab. Do you agree? Are you in a BID district, do you want to be if you are not? They do great things. Get involved. Look into that.
Russell Brown on March 25, 2011, at 12:44AM – #2
The comment above on the downtown streetcar is only partially correct.
California law requires that all taxes must be approved by a vote. For a business improvement district (BID) the property owners must agree to form the district and then agree by over 51% of the total assessment value to approve the district. All the BIDS downtown are property-based BIDs- meaning the property owner pays the assessment as part of their tax bill. There are merchant based bids- but not downtown. The assessment includes all buildings -commercial, residential apartments, condos and city and government buildings within their boundaries. Often the boundaries are irregular to exclude certain properties who choose not to benefit or support BIDs.
The proposed funding for the downtown streetcar has 2 funding options for an assessment district- called a community facilities district (Mello-Roos is also a name that folks may be familiar with).
http://www.californiataxdata.com/pdf/Mello-Roos2.pdf
Both require votes by affected properties, but in different ways.
The assessment districts can be only the commercial properties which is voted on by only the commercial property owners. This REQUIRES the exclusion of any assessments on all residential- about 30% of the streetcar district.
Typical bid approval thresholds for approval are only a simple majority of ALL assessments 50.1% (This is very different than just 50.1% of those who vote). Mello-Roos requires a 2/3rds vote.
The alternative is an assessment that is on all properties, residential and commercial.
California law requires this method must be also be approved by the registered voters by a 2/3rds majority. This is same as sales tax increases such as Measure R which is funding subway and regional connector.
If approved, all properties will be part of the assessment district, commercial and residential. There is no allowed state mechanism that allows registered voters and commercial property owners to both vote together. That would probably be most fair but is not allowed.
The proposed assessment is about $0.01 per square foot per month. So a 1000 square foot space (commercial or residential) would pay $10 a month. Whoever pays the property taxes would pay the assessment. So commercial and condo owners would see this on their bill (just like school district fees, and other add-ons on the property tax bill).
Apartment renters would not pay this directly but it would be factored into the costs of running a building and would probably be passed to the tenants.
But I would also say that not needing to pay for parking or needing a second car is also an amazing benefit. All properties near the streetcar line should be more desirable with more customers nearby, new businesses coming to the neighborhood, decreased vacancy rates, reduced parking requirements etc.
The assessment formula also includes all future development so as the tax base expands, the tax assessment can decrease.