Tuesday, May 18, 2004
Page 7
AFFAIRS OF STATE (Column)
Selling Surplus Property Will Help the State’s Bottom Line
By DAVID KLINE
Of the 99.8 million acres that make up the state of California, how much do you think is owned by the government? One-quarter? One-third? Half?
Too low.
The answer is 52 percent. Yes, 52 percent, or roughly 52 million acres of the state, is owned by government agencies.
And that figure might be a little low, since it accounts for just the federal and state governments. Local governments also own real estate throughout California.
Much of the federal land is comprised of national forests. The state, too, has purchased forest land in recent years to appease environmental extremists whose Democratic allies run the Legislature.
But the government isn’t using all of its land—or, more appropriately, OUR land—to grow redwoods and make homes for spotted owls. State Sens. Jim Battin, R-La Quinta, and Jeff Denham, R-Merced, recently reported that some of the government land is currently being used for a golf course, and one parcel is being leased to a massage parlor.
And what about the property used on all this land? Nobody seems to know how much property the state owns, how much it actually needs or how much could be sold to reduce the taxpayers’ burden.
One small example: The state owns approximately 70,000 vehicles “but can’t tell you where they are,” according to the governor’s finance director, Donna Arduin.
Battin and Denham are pushing for better asset management with a package of reforms that is making its way through the Legislature.
Last week, Gov. Schwarzenegger helped the cause by issuing an executive order calling for a review of all state assets in every state agency.
“California’s decision-making process regarding the utilization of real property assets lacks statewide coordination, with nearly a hundred board members and department directors who govern the decisions regarding what property is added to and deleted from California’s asset inventory,” the executive order notes.
Arduin told reporters Thursday that the administration wants a complete audit of state holdings and is working on a plan to improve management of assets. When the work is done, the state will know the location and purpose of every one of the 70,000 vehicles, she said.
Along with a better system of managing the assets, Schwarzenegger wants a report on high-value properties that are ripe for selling. According to Denham and Battin, the state even owns land in Hawaii and Tahiti, so the report could be a real eye-opener for the taxpayers.
The governor has budgeted for $50 million in revenue from the sale of surplus assets—a very conservative estimate, Arduin said, since a single piece of land could sell for more than that in some parts of the state.
The sale of property and assets can be good for taxpayers in many ways. First, sales generate immediate revenue that is needed to pay off all the borrowing that has been going on. Also, each sale puts property back in the private sector, where it belongs. And the private parties that purchase the land will end up paying property taxes, adding a little more revenue for the state.
Denham points out that when land is sold, the taxpayers further benefit from lower maintenance costs and less legal liability.
“ Every year the Legislature has to pass legislation to pay for lawsuit settlements,” Denham wrote in a recent column. “One of the more recent settlements was a traffic accident that occurred in a state-owned parking lot. California taxpayers had to pay $4 million for that incident, in which the only state involvement was that we owned the property. Fewer state buildings, means fewer opportunities for frivolous lawsuits.”
With this surplus of good reasons for selling surplus property, our legislators have no reason not to cooperate with the efforts underway in the Governor’s Office and the Senate.
— Capitol News Service
Copyright 2004, Metropolitan News Company