News item: �California to Sell 24 Government Buildings for $2.3 Billion� (AP, October 12, 2010).

As a way of helping plug the State of California�s now-chronic budget deficit, this headline is welcome news. Among the state-owned properties on the auction block are LA�s Ronald Reagan State Building and San Francisco�s Civic Center. I have on several occasions during the past decade recommended such a �yard sale�, a period during which Sacramento has almost continuously overspent its tax revenue.

The �deal�, according to some of its supporters, will enable the legislature to retire about $1 billion in bonds still owed on the 24 properties, leaving another $1.2 billion to stanch the flow of red ink in the state�s general fund.

Critics allege, on the other hand, that the lease-back arrangement with private purchasers exposes the state�s taxpayers to somewhere between $1.5 billion and $5.2 billion over the next 20 or 30 years for renting space they previously �owned�. . .

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