It would have been wasted anyway, if it had remained in the various Redevelopment Agencies, most usually via city-built venues that people don’t go to, or “low income housing” that nobody has a “right” to.
You got it wrong. Since when does a conservative advocate doing away with local control. You might not like what your local city council via its redevelopment agency is doing, but at least at the local level you have a fighting chance to correct the situation.
This take from the cities simply puts more money in Sacramento’s hands to spend - unless you think they will use it responsibly to reduce the deficit?
You are corect that a side benefit will be to reduce the amount of money that cities are required to spend on low income housing using redevelopment agency funds. The smart cities will use these funds to send to the state.
In case you are not aware, that low income housing is a state requirement imposed on cities out of Sacramento.