Tavares, FL April 1, 2014
In 2011, California Gov. Jerry Brown shut down all CRAs and took their funds. Now they are trying to create new ways in California to replace the CRA’s (Community Redevelopment Agencies) which were never approved by voters, and nothing seems to work yet.
Meanwhile, here in Lake County, FL, it will be interesting to see what happens with CRA’s in Lake County. Voters never approved any of them in Lake County. Instead, they were implemented by a legal process where local cities had to prove there was "blight" and no local votes took place. Lake County takes more than $1-million from their general funds and send it to the 15+ CRA’s in Lake County. All are run by cities except the new one in Sorrento run by the Lake County Board, which has no funds due yet to that CRA.
Attached here is the recently issued annual report of the Lake County run CRA in the Sorrento area:
Download 2014-03-25 BCC CRA Plan - 69pgs
My previous article on Broward County, FL deciding to stop contributions to CRA’s is here:
And here is an older factsheet on CRA’s I wrote on the blog:
And here is our lengthy analysis of using a CRA for funding Minneola, FL infrastructure to subsidize some land owners when there WAS NO BLIGHTED downtown area involved:
At a recent offsite Lake County Board “retreat”, I was surprised when 3 of the board members must have read about Broward, and since Lake County is now taking over $1-million from their general fund for local CRA’s, said they were interested in halting County general fund subsidy payments to CRA’s when they renew. But since CRA’s last up to 30 years, and some have already renewed like Mt. Dora and Umatilla, it could take awhile. I have always questioned why a portion of property tax collections from the COUNTY general fund should be paid to the many city CRA’s without voter approval. I also question why CRA's should be renewed after 30 years. If they couldn't help reduce the "blight" in 30 years, why continue shoveling property tax money at them? Let private developers create new plans with their own money at stake.
Observers of the current legislative bill filings in the legislature may know that Lake County Rep. Larry Metz filed a bill to reorganize the special district regulations and add some oversight. That is because he has experience with the lack of oversight on the North Lake County Hospital District, plus water districts. CRA’s are also considered special districts in Florida and there is NO central state oversight on them. One problem then is that CRA’s are only as good as the local CRA commissions or groups running them, and if they abuse the use of CRA funds, it is hard to find out.
Over many years, I have observed a general rule that when a source of money reaches large levels, many people try to take it – social security is one, the 2% tax for schools in Florida, where the legislators took ½% is another. Thus, maybe Florida may at one point find a way to hijack the CRA funds like California, especially if they have a track record of spending that is questionable. (California had some real abuses, but I haven’t seen major problems in Lake County except the questionable Minneola CRA – yet).
Vance Jochim
Lake County Fiscal Rangers
Chief Fiscal Watchdog
Volunteers Searching for Ways to Improve Local Government Fiscal Management, Efficiency & Effectiveness
Tavares, FL 32778 (Lake County)
