Big Bear Lake, CA – This week, the City of Big Bear Lake’s Improvement Agency was forced by the State of California to submit payment to the State in the amount of $2,165,515; money taken from the redevelopment portion of our local property tax funds to support the State of California’s Supplemental Education Revenue Augmentation Fund that essentially funds the California school system. This does not mean that the almost $2.2 will be given to the Bear Valley Unified School District. The money is required to be submitted to the State for distribution at their discretion. The state budget bill has required redevelopment agencies statewide to transfer $2.05 billion in local redevelopment funds to state purposes over the next two years. In 2009, the California Redevelopment Association filed a lawsuit in Sacramento Superior Court deeming the demand of city redevelopment money to be used to fund the State’s obligation to schools as unconstitutional and to invalidate provisions of Assembly Bill X4-26 passed in July 2009 as part of the 2009/2010 state budget. But, Sacramento Superior Court Judge Lloyd Connelly upheld the decision of the State bill to require cities to pay the State their redevelopment money. The California Redevelopment Association is going to appeal with the hopes of sending this suit to the Supreme Court. Under the terms of the bill, the first installment, $1.75 billion in budget year 2009/2010, needed to be turned over to local county assessors on May 10th. The second installment of $350 million is due in 2011.