John Shirey, executive director of the California RedevelopmentAssociation, believes local governments will be hit with aneffective "double whammy" by the $350 million earmarked in thebudget as a "redevelopment takeaway."

This takeway, as Shirey describes it, is something he believeswill impact developers and commercial projects in redevelopmentareas, and Shirey says the CRA is contemplating filing a law suitto stop what it believes is an unconstitutional move.

"We don't' like the $350 million take of redevelopment funds,"says Shirey. "We feel it is not only unconstitutional, it is poorpolicy. Our funds are about the only source of capital right now.When banks won't make loans and projects are sitting idle, to takeaway from redevelopment agencies money that could be invested isthe wrong approach to the economics of the state right now—we needmore investment, not less."