FAT CATS' POWER PLAY FAILS TO SCORE AT ARENA; SMALL BUT MIGHTY TAXPAYER SQUAD HOLDS LINE, DESPITE CRA QUESTION.

Byline: Joel Fox / Local View

THE Los Angeles City Council has endorsed the $300 million downtown sports arena. Even though this long game to determine if Los Angeles will build the sports arena appears over, former City Councilman Ernani Bernardi is calling for an overtime session, challenging the use of Community Redevelopment Agency money to complete the project.

The game over the sports arena was fascinating to watch. Skating on the side of a quick deal built on taxpayer money were the Big Guys: developers, sports team owners, the downtown business establishment, the Mayor's Office, and most of the City Council.

Minding the taxpayers' net was a much smaller squad, but it had one rock solid goalie - Councilman Joel Wachs. He had some defensive help on the council from Nate Holden; and Rita Walters came off the bench after the game started. But it was Wachs' goaltending that kept the taxpayers in the game.

Penalties were assessed on the Big Guys for hiding the puck and generally playing unfairly. No unnecessary roughness penalties were called, although there was plenty of that going on.

The Big Guys kept rushing down the ice, bringing on reserves like big-time lobbyists, and even suiting up an All-Star, Cardinal Roger Mahony; but they couldn't get the puck past Wachs. He continued to insist that if the arena were to be built, it should be the total financial responsibility of the developers and owners, not the taxpayers.

In frustration, the developers grumbled they were going to pick up their puck and go away, but Wachs stayed in the goal.

In the end, his stubbornness paid off with a victory for the taxpayers.

Still, there's the problem Bernardi raises. The $12 million contribution from the Community Redevelopment Agency raises questions in itself.

The CRA plays by its own rules. The CRA was established by state laws to redevelop blighted areas.

CRA money doesn't come from the general fund. It comes from something called tax increments. These are the additional property taxes a newly constructed or renovated building in a designated CRA zone brings in above the amount that the property paid when it was run-down. The CRA gets to keep tax increments for its redevelopment purposes.

It is not certain what a court would do if Bernardi decided to challenge the CRA contribution to the project. At a minimum, this highly publicized contribution from the CRA to the arena deal should open debate on the CRA's usefulness.

The question is why the CRA is allowed to keep the property tax increments and deny those property tax dollars to schools and local governments.

Putting that aside for the moment, the taxpayers did benefit from Wachs' hard line. By Wachs' calculations, under the new agreement taxpayers saved well more than $100 million dollars from the original proposal the council OK'd in July.

Developers disagree.

They say the savings were ``only'' in the tens of millions. OK, we'll take it.

There is a lesson to be learned here. It goes hand in hand with the reason the taxpayers overwhelmingly passed Proposition 218, the Taxpayers Right to Vote Initiative, in November. Taxpayers should be part of financial decisions.

No doubt deals like the arena or calls for tax increases will be more difficult to achieve under these circumstances. However, involving the taxpayers will require cooperation between the officials and the citizens and the end results will be more beneficial and satisfactory for the entire community.