Redevelopment Plans Shaken Up as California Cuts Budget

"'Redevelopment was probably the only thing that most communities had going through the recession,' said John Shirey, who leads the California Redevelopment Association.

But legislators said redevelopment won't die. Although agencies will surrender $1.7 billion in the new fiscal year, they'll lose just $400 million a year in future years, out of an annual budget of $5.5 billion.

'Anybody who's saying this wipes out redevelopment, this ends redevelopment, it's not true,' said Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento."

For cities like Sacramento, projects will have to find new sources of revenue to stay alive. For example, officials had already started trying to find a non-redevelopment source for a proposed new arena.