Senator George Runner
Serving the 17th District which incorporates portions of the Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Ventura and Kern counties.

The economic downturn that California continues to experience further illustrates the importance for the Legislature and the Governor to reign in spending and create a rainy day fund. It also means we need to maximize our state assets.

California owns a variety of assets, including buildings, stadiums, arenas, railroads, fairgrounds, printing plants, parks, prisons, office complexes, golf courses and more. As time goes by, facilities age, become obsolete and priorities change. Agencies find that the cost of maintaining many of these sites outweighs the benefit of the services they provide. Thus, properties become surplus to the needs of the state.

Fortunately, California’s Constitution provides a process for disposing of surplus state property – a process that worked well for most of California’s existence.

Now, unfortunately, state property sales have become entangled in the eco-politics of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), which requires – among other things – an environmental review of some properties.

Historically, the sale of surplus property has been exempted from the CEQA review process since the new owner or developer is required to undergo CEQA requirements if the property is developed.

Prior to 2005, legislation that required the sale of surplus state property contained standard language that provided a legal exemption from CEQA. Year in and year out, the Legislature passed this exemption without controversy or a second thought and the state shed itself from unused property.

But that wasn’t good enough for extreme environmentalists. They vowed to fight in the name of saving the earth and exerting their own power to challenge all legal exemptions to CEQA.

As a result, no surplus property bill has been enacted since 2004.

Surplus property legislation introduced by Republican and Democrat legislators alike has become politicized and Governor Schwarzenegger has vetoed nearly every surplus property bill that did not contain a CEQA exemption. He has vowed to continue this practice.

That means taxpayers continue to pay for the maintenance and other expenses of surplus state property – like the 850-acre parcel in Napa County that the Legislature is eager to sell to the county.

Imagine how much money 850 acres in the heart of Napa Valley is worth. Wouldn’t it be nice if the proceeds from such a sale were used to help pay down the Economic Recovery Bonds, which were sold in 2005 to close California’s deficit?

Thanks to our environmentally sensitive friends, that won’t happen anytime soon and the state must continue diverting taxpayer money to maintain these surplus properties that otherwise could be used to provide services to the people of California.