SACRAMENTO, Calif. — San Quentin State Prison. Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The California State Fairgrounds.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s plan to put some of his state’s biggest landmarks up for sale to help erase a $24 billion budget deficit is fraught with questions, chief among them: How can California taxpayers possibly get a good deal in this slumping real estate market?
Schwarzenegger, who also has proposed deep cuts in education, health care, welfare and parks, wants to sell some property outright; sell office buildings and rent them back from the new landlords; and lease some state land to developers.
The state estimates that San Quentin Prison, on 488 picturesque acres on San Francisco Bay and home to the state’s death row, could bring in $1 billion from a developer.
Questions remain about relocating the prison’s 5,150 inmates, which could cost millions.
One critic called it a “classic pawnshop mentality of trying to divest the state’s assets.” The Associated Press
