California Redevelopment Agencies don’t like having their stuff taken away? Aww…

May 06, 2010 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Author: Timothy Sandefur

The big fish gets eaten by the bigger fish…. One of the band-aid solutions the legislature recently enacted to address California’s ever worsening budget crisis was to force the state’s many redevelopment agencies to give their money to school districts. Redevelopment agencies, of course, are those guys who use eminent domain to take away your homes and businesses and give the property to private developers.

The agencies sued, arguing that the requirement was unconstitutional, but a Sacramento judge ruled Wednesday that the state is allowed to determine how best to use these funds. Not much of interest in the opinion, but it is darkly amusing to see the redevelopment agencies being deprived of the money that they would otherwise be using to steal people’s property through eminent domain.