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Indybay Feature
Community Benefits Districts Expose Hypocrisy of Prop. I Challengers
The Board of Supervisors Government Audits and Oversights Committee will vote today on approving the initial step towards the creation of Community Benefits Districts (CBDs) in both the Fillmore and Mid-Market neighborhoods. In order to ensure these communities qualify for funding this year, the Committee must move fast in its approval - so fast, in fact, that the Controller will have to waive the economic analysis of the CBD legislation that the voter-approved Proposition I requires. But some of the groups that strongly support the CBDs and the economic analysis waiver (the Chamber of Commerce, property owners, and merchants) are the very same groups behind a lawsuit against the city that would eliminate the Board's ability to enact exactly these kinds of waivers. Apparently, those behind the Prop. I lawsuit want to freely pick and choose when waivers of economic analyses are granted.
A group of downtown business interests joined forces last month to legally challenge the city's implementation of Proposition I, a measure passed by voters in 2004 requiring an economic review of proposed legislation. The suit argues the city controller consistently fails to complete such an analysis, and asks that the President of the Board of Supervisors' current power to waive economic studies of legislation be eliminated.
Board President Aaron Peskin originally had planned today to comply with the wishes of those behind the lawsuit, which includes the Chamber of Commerce, Committee on Jobs, and San Francisco Association of Realtors. Peskin was going to give up his right to waive the economic analysis of the CBDs, triggering a review by the controller's office of both proposals.
However, supporters of the CBDs quickly cried foul. Here's why:
The process to create a CBD is a tricky one. CBDs are a relatively new way for neighborhoods to improve their communities, in which over half of the property owners in a proposed district must agree to an additional tax. The income from the tax goes towards cleaning the district's streets and sidewalks, along with other general improvements to public areas.
Read More
http://www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=3418#more
Board President Aaron Peskin originally had planned today to comply with the wishes of those behind the lawsuit, which includes the Chamber of Commerce, Committee on Jobs, and San Francisco Association of Realtors. Peskin was going to give up his right to waive the economic analysis of the CBDs, triggering a review by the controller's office of both proposals.
However, supporters of the CBDs quickly cried foul. Here's why:
The process to create a CBD is a tricky one. CBDs are a relatively new way for neighborhoods to improve their communities, in which over half of the property owners in a proposed district must agree to an additional tax. The income from the tax goes towards cleaning the district's streets and sidewalks, along with other general improvements to public areas.
Read More
http://www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=3418#more
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