Public Should Decide on Jungleland

A determined pair of Thousand Oaks councilmen, backed by the machinations of a supportive city manager, have ignored and denied public votes on the $129-million Jungleland redevelopment project--a project paid for with public funds. The Times recently carried the news that Thousand Oaks closed the deal to purchase the site for the proposed civic auditorium for $17.9 million, a 50% increase over the $11.7-million cost the public was led to believe.

At the same time, The Times also reported that the Orange County Performing Arts Center--which compares with the proposed Thousand Oaks auditorium in size and planned programming--is in serious difficulty. Given the fact that all of these facilities operate at a loss, the $65 million pledged to the Orange County Center’s endowment fund has not materialized. Only $3.3 million has been collected, producing an interest revenue insufficient to cover the $1-million loss suffered this year.

Thousand Oaks, in a much smaller market and without the donor potential of Orange County, formed an organization to build an endowment fund to offset operating deficits. It was advanced $200,000 from the city to hire professional fund-raisers. A year later, the $200,000 is gone and only $22,500 in real dollars has been raised. Not a good portent.

The documented history of subsidized performing arts centers throughout the country is cause enough to seek public approval of a $129-million project, particularly in the current economic climate. Even further, the source of this money--a portion of our property taxes captured through redevelopment, a state program intended to address “blight”--has a profound and growing effect on K-14 educational funding throughout California.

The 600 or so redevelopment projects in California stripped almost $1 billion from local property taxes in 1989-90 alone. Of that, approximately 39% would have gone to support local schools. As a condition of Proposition 13, the state is mandated to make up these lost dollars from the general fund. According to a Nov. 29 article, this comes close to the amount outgoing Gov. Deukmejian proposes to slash from school budgets through suspension of Proposition 98.

In Thousand Oaks, the local school district surrendered $93 million in future property tax revenue to city redevelopment with the assurance that the state would make up their loss. Perhaps they can augment a weakened education for our children by adding a tour of the Jungleland Civic Auditorium to the curriculum.

DICK BOOKER

Thousand Oaks