Publications
Just Causes Newspaper - Spring & Summer 2012
The Facts About the Budget
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The Facts About The Oakland Budget
Wealthy Corporations and Individuals: Pay Your Fair Share!
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Each year, the state of California and local municipalities play the budget game – trying to work out how to fund services and pay growing debts with shrinking revenue.
Those of us who have been watching and experiencing the impact of continuing cuts to vital services see a different pattern – a crisis in revenue generation that dates back over three decades. In 1978 California passed the misleading and profoundly impactful Proposition 13, which put into place loopholes for giant corporate property owners and a law that requires a two-thirds supermajority vote to increase taxes. Prop 13 simultaneously made it easier for big corporations to get out of paying their fair share of taxes and made it much harder for our state representatives to raise revenues through tax increases. Prop 13 has seriously hurt generations of California residents.
Read more: Wealthy Corporations and Individuals: Pay Your Fair Share!
Is There A Future For Community Development
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Over the last 50 years, redevelopment agencies (RDA) in the state of California have worked diligently on promoting economic and community development in areas once deemed “undesirable.” About 400 RDAs across the state have provided funding for many different projects including affordable housing, improving city infrastructure and landscape, and providing job opportunities.
In 1945, the legislature gave cities the ability to create RDAs that would identify “blight” or property areas in need of revitalization. The RDAs would provide the initial funding for projects in these neighborhoods that create the momentum for further development. The revitalization leads to increases in property values; and, the increased property taxes that get collected creates the revenue that are used to fund more projects.
My Opinion: The State of the City? Might be on the Rise…
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On Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2012 Mayor Jean Quan, gave her first State of the City speech entitled “Oakland is on the Rise” to an audience of Oakland’s community, labor, business, athletic, musical and grassroots leaders. As one of Oakland’s native daughters, the mother of a young son and the Executive Director of Oakland Rising, I listened to the State of the City pensively.
Read more: My Opinion: The State of the City? Might be on the Rise…
Governor Brown Slashes Affordable Housing Funds
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With the dissolution of redevelopment on February 1, we have lost the largest state source for affordable housing. Unless we can be particularly creative in identifying new funding sources and changing political will, this decision may well result in displacement, instability, and even homelessness for thousands of Californians.
