The legislature finds and declares that

(1) slum and blighted areas exist in localities throughout the state and they constitute a serious and growing menace, injurious and inimical to the public health, safety, morals, and welfare of the residents of the state;

(2) the existence of these slum and blighted areas contributes substantially and increasingly to the spread of disease and crime, necessitating excessive and disproportionate expenditures of public funds for the preservation of the public health and safety, for crime prevention, correction, prosecution, punishment, and the treatment of juvenile delinquency and for the maintenance of adequate police, fire, and accident protection and other public services and facilities, and constitutes an economic and social liability, substantially impairs or arrests the sound growth of municipalities, and retards the provisions of housing accommodations;

(3) this menace is beyond remedy and control solely by regulatory process in the exercise of the police power and cannot be dealt with effectively by the ordinary operations of private enterprise without the aids provided in AS 18.55.480 - 18.55.960;

(4) the elimination of slum conditions or conditions of blight, the acquisition and preparation of land in or necessary to the redevelopment of slum or blighted areas and its sale or lease for development or redevelopment in accordance with comprehensive plans and redevelopment plans of municipalities, and any assistance that may be given by any public body in connection therewith are public uses and purposes for which public money may be expended and private property acquired; and

(5) the necessity in the public interest for the provisions of AS 18.55.480 - 18.55.960 is a matter for legislative determination.