Today’s the hearing date for the San Francisco 49ers‘s dispute over the $30 million in property taxes that the team says voters approved to go towards their new Santa Clara stadium, but that the board that controls the tax money says can be spent on other uses now that the redevelopment agency that originally controlled it has been dissolved by the state. (Got all that?) It may not matter much, though, as state senator Elaine Alquist has gutted a bill on teacher credentialing and instead inserted language to force the county board to cough up the dough to the team.
The L.A. Times, which reported on the new bill, doesn’t say whether Alquist has the support to get this measure passed, but she did successfully author a bill three years ago to exempt the 49ers from competitive bidding on their stadium. It’s nice to have friends in high places.
And why are we shocked? Between Elaine Alquist and her ex-husband, they have totaled nearly 50 years as elected officials who have collected money from virtually every special interest imaginable. This is the second time Senator Alquist is looking to do a special favor for the Yorks/49ers. All of this because a state appointed oversight board voted to provide $30 million on taxpayer redevelopment funds for schools instead of a new 49ers stadium. How absurd is it when a state senator decides subsidizing a billionaire is more important than our schoolchildren. Well, that is the position of Senator Alquist. Obviously, she is in the 49ers back pocket.
30 million to school children? hahaha that will be the day!
Most if not all will go to the bloated school district administrators, how else is the county going to pay for their new Superintendent of Education $299k a year salary? Mr. De La Tore is even being paid less than the guy he replaced!
Like all if not most Californians we are tired of the sham of “money for school children” which we know will never reach the class room. That is why any money for education ballot measure is shot down year after year in many CA communities.
So this county board’s action is just a money grab for tax money just cause they can does not mean they should.
I could care less if this stadium is built or not, this is just an example of CA politics at its worst.
I wonder if this county board would pull money from the High Speed Rail project because it could be used “somewhere” else?? for school children? the blind? hahaha
EndoG: I don’t know if live in my city, but I can tell you, as a Santa Clara taxpayer, there are far more pressing needs for that $30 million than an NFL stadium being built for an entity whose owners are billionaires. The High Speed Rail project was funded by a voter approved state bond measure. The 49ers stadium was a citywide ballot measure which would have provided up to $40 million in Redevelopment Agency funds. However, Redevelopment Agencies were established by the State of California, and the state supreme court ruled they had the power to dissolve them.
The hearing is postponed until August 17th.
Alquist (she doesn’t deserve to be called Senator# is nothing more than a handmaiden for the Yorks! She took away Santa Clara’s right to control their own City Charter and gave the 49ers a no-bid contract for the stadium even though it would on CITY-OWNED land. And, she wants to be Secretary of State for CA … JOKE on! No one with your pandering ways should be ever elected to anything ever again …
Contact your CA state reps and insist that they vote NO on whatever she is proposing. She is gutting a teaching bill to shove this through and the text isn’t even public yet. How dare she divert public money #that she voted on, BTW) to a billionaire who has already said they will build if they don’t get the money. They are not entitled to it and the citizens of Santa Clara NEVER voted to give it to them either.
If you gave $30 million to schoolchildren they’d just blow it on candy anyway.
SCwillnotbeneft, you make great points and I do not disagree with you that SC or other CA cities dont have pressing needs. All cities do, but voters in SC approved money for this stadium project regardless of what ever other issues the city needed money for.
Yes Redevelopment Agencies (RA) were dissolved and a new bureaucracy was created to replace these Agencies. The new county order that controls this funding, is in some counties honoring commitments that the old RA had, in other counties those commitments are not being honored. Courts will decide this issue.
As a 56 year tax payer of the city of santa clara, my intelligence was insulted when the board decided that money “should be spent on school children”. We know that is not going to be the case, that money will be spent as i stated in my last post if it does go to education.
Most likely each of the county agencies represented on this board will take a cut of it and spend it as they see fit, with no tax payer over sight.
Again CA politics at its worst! Maybe this board has $50 million hidden away just like the CA parks dept had while they cried that they were broke!
Endo–you’re wrong on many counts.
First, voters NEVER approved giving this money to the 49ers. It was NOT part of Measure J. It was part of the draft, non-binding term sheet that was attached to Measure J, but the 49ers have argued TWICE in Court (once in 2010 and once this year) that NOTHING in the Term Sheet was binding. That was why they argued that the voters should not get to vote on the deal the City Council approved in December 2011–basically saying the the term sheet was just a general outline, and not binding in any specific way. Now, of course, they want one small part of that to be binding (the $40M from the RDA), but they can’t have it both ways.
AND, second, you are also wrong about where the money for the schools would go. The $20M for the schools goes to Santa Clara UNIFIED School District NOT the Santa Clara COUNTY Office of Education.
Third, the Oversight Board doesn’t get to divide up that money any way it wants to. It is REQUIRED to follow the formulas for property tax distribution, which is why we know exactly how much the Santa Clara UNIFIED School District will lose. So much for the Measure J campaign promise that the stadium would be GOOD for the schools. I knew it wasn’t true then, and now we see that’s true.
If you have been paying taxes in the City for 56 years, you may not have children in the district, but I do. I’m tired of the HUGE class sizes for the littlest kids, combo classes (two grade levels in one class), and furlough days. Trust me, the parents and teachers in the district will make SURE SCUSD will spend this $20M well.
In the first place, the element of giving Redevelopment Agency funds to construct an NFL stadium in Santa Clara was a fallacy. Those funds were designated for improving blighted areas. The designated area around the stadium is not blighted. The stadium issue brings to focus why redevelopment agencies should have been dissolved. They became a slush fund for politicians and their developer buddies, in this case being Santa Clara politicians and the San Francisco 49ers.
Even if Santa Clara County ends up dividing the $30 million, and allocating it for projects that will benefit the entire public, its still a better use of taxpayer funds then giving it to a billionaire family.
In my view, Elaine Alquist represents “CA politics at its worse”.
She makes very clear the corrupting effect of being in a political job way too long. I could have found more ethical values on the Barbary Coast with a pea-shooter than in her entire body. (Also note to Santa Clara City Council–saying you’re “ethical” is not the same as actually being “ethical” [insert italics].)
Endo, did you miss the city fireworks show earlier this month? It would had cost about the same to stage it as the city is now spending on attorney fees to defend itself against their, ahem, “business partner”. I guess Mayor Matthews “iron clad” general fund guarantee was of low tensile strength. Big surprise.
Redevelopment has been the biggest drain on CA for 50 years and before people claim they fix blight…look at what redevelopment $ has ACTUALLY done to our cities. Western Addition was 1 of the 1st redevelopment projects in SF….its an utter cesspool of blight. Everywhere redevelopment money goes blight follows.
I have many good friends who live in Santa Clara, and the residents of SC have good reason for concern about this rotten stadium deal. Any serious unbiased individual, when asked will tell you that the Stadium deal in Santa Clara is bad…So what gives???
Corrupt, Unethical, Paid-Off Politicans by the SF 49er/Yorks, thats what. Its time for Santa Clarans to stop being so PC, & polite…Its time to get downright Mad, and Show It! From your Elected Officials, who are supposed to look out for you, to your Daily Newspaper, the SJ Mercury News…These entities have played all of you, and they have gotten away with it, because they “know” there will be “NO” blow-back. The current Mayor, & City Council members of Santa Clara will be reelected, because they will not be held responsible for “Their” actions. And the Beat Goes On…
Make sure that you call Alquist office to tell her you disapprove of what she has done regarding the 30 Million, and call other State Reps to tell them to vote NO on her bill. I personally will see that Elaine Alquist is NEVER elected as our California Secretary of State, but I’m pretty sure the Yorks will donate to her campaign. Elaine Alquist would do better working for the 49er organization, maybe she can take Lisa Lang’s position as the “mouth piece” of the 49ers. She is already Yorks Shill in our State Government.
I have many good friends who live in Santa Clara, and the residents of SC have good reason for concern about this rotten stadium deal. Any serious unbiased individual, when asked will tell you that the Stadium deal in Santa Clara is bad…So what gives???
Corrupt, Unethical, Paid-Off Politicans by the SF 49er/Yorks, thats what. Its time for Santa Clarans to stop being so PC, & polite…Its time to get downright Mad, and Show It! From your Elected Officials, who are supposed to look out for you, to your Daily Newspaper, the SJ Mercury News…These entities have played all of you, and they have gotten away with it, because they “know” there will be “NO” blow-back. The current Mayor, & City Council members of Santa Clara will be reelected, because they will not be held responsible for “Their” actions. And the Beat Goes On…
Make sure that you call Alquist office to tell her you disapprove of what she has done regarding the 30 Million, and call other State Reps to tell them to vote NO on her bill. I personally will see that Elaine Alquist is NEVER elected as our California Secretary of State, but I’m pretty sure the Yorks will donate to her campaign. Elaine Alquist would do better working for the 49er organization, maybe she can take Lisa Lang’s position as the “mouth piece” of the 49ers. She is already Yorks Shill in our State Government.
Aside from getting the NFL to pay for the entire costs of the stadiums which house their teams, when it comes to the taxpayers there is no such thing as a good stadium deal.
I must be getting old or maybe it is something else:
I have been a sports (mostly Football, basketball, Baseball)fan since 1970.
I created a protest T-shirt in the Barry Bonds ordeal in protest of MLB not taking responsibility for its role in the “Steroid era.” Currently as a result I am on a one man boycott against MLB until Bud Selig retires.
I am a long time San Francisco resident but opposed to the Warriors coming to the city even though I love the Warriors. I smell something funny with the whole deal but to explain is too long to elaberate here.
And I have a beef with the 49ers that irked me enough to create a 49er fan reolt blog.
Now this proposed bill to restore $30 million towards their new stadium.
Am I too old to be a sports fan or have my eyes been finally opened to the “Field of schemes” by sports franchises?
It is truly a travesty that money that could be used to educate our youth is going, not just toward a corporate subsidy, but toward a corporation whose primary product is a sport in which thugs and criminals give each other brain damage for the barbaric bloodlust of millions of baying fans. Such “entertainment” has no place in the Bay Area.
I propose a citizens’ movement in both the Bay Area and Southern California to get the 49ers to relocate to LA. Los Angeles needs a team and is the kind of place where pro sports should be (after all, it is the entertainment capital of the world). Together, I’m confident Santa Clarans and Angelenos can work to give the 49ers a more appropriate home.
Elaine Alquist’s bill to take away $30 million in property tax dollars from our schools/city/county agencies is now being credited with the distinction of being 1 of 4 major reasons for people to vote ‘no’ on the Governor’s tax initiative in November:
foxandhoundsdaily.com/2012/07/four-taxing-questions-all-bad-news-for-taxes-on-the-november-ballot/