Cohen

In 2011, the political branches of our state government decided as a matter of public policy that abuses of the redevelopment law, which constituted an ever-growing drain on state finances, required the dissolution of nearly 400 redevelopment agencies and the winding down of outstanding redevelopment obligations; this resulted in a frantic scurry on the part of “sponsoring entities” (usually cities) and their conjoined former redevelopment agencies to lock up “tax increment” revenues—the share of property taxes to which redevelopment agencies had been entitled before the enactment of this “ ‘Great Dissolution.’ ” (California Redevelopment Assn. v. Matosantos (2011) 53 Cal.4th 231, 243-248 [ 135 Cal.Rptr.3d 683 , 267 P.3d 580 ]; Brentwood, supra, 237 Cal.App.4th at pp. 491, 492, fn. 4, 499 & fns. 13, 14.) It has also resulted in scores of actions in the Sacramento County Superior Court (§ 34168, subd. (a)) that primarily involve the sponsoring entities and their equally conjoined “successor agencies” seeking to evade this legislative determination.

We confront a recurring issue in this appeal. In 2012, the Legislature decided to apply the postdissolution exclusion of any…