Thread: CA:Villaraigosa addresses city's shortfall

Analysts attributed the $155-million deficit mostly to the flagging economy. Villaraigosa proposes stark plans.

By Duke Helfand and David Zahniser, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers

January 29, 2008

Faced with a budget shortfall that has doubled in three months, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa called Monday for paring city spending by suspending most hiring, asking thousands of workers to take unpaid furloughs and selling vacant fire stations.

Budget analysts attributed the $155-million deficit mostly to the flagging economy, saying larger than expected decreases in sales taxes, real estate transfer taxes, fees and state reimbursements have left the city $69 million short of anticipated revenues.

Fuel costs and police overtime have driven up expenses more than anticipated.

Despite the troubling financial situation, Villaraigosa pledged to continue his 1,000-officer expansion of the Los Angeles Police Department -- an effort he called key to attracting business, even if it means cutting other services such as street paving and graffiti removal.

"My priority has got to be public safety," Villaraigosa said at a City Hall news conference. "Keeping the city safe is the answer to how we support revenues."

Villaraigosa outlined $35 million in cuts as he made a pitch for Proposition S, a telephone users utility tax that is expected to generate $243 million annually. Voters will decide the issue next Tuesday, and the mayor has been arguing that the city will have to slash public safety services if the measure fails.

The proposed cuts come a month after Villaraigosa and the City Council signed off on a five-year package of employee raises that are projected to cost $255 million by 2012.

Villaraigosa and other city leaders are bracing for a gap of at least $300 million, and perhaps as much as $500 million, in the fiscal year that begins July 1.

That could create the city's largest budget hole in nearly three decades, officials said.

The mayor's focus on his LAPD hiring promise drew criticism from a member of the City Council's budget and finance committee.

Councilman Greig Smith, who represents the northwest San Fernando Valley, argued that all city departments should share in this year's budgetary pain.

"Hiring police officers now is an issue that has to be discussed," said Smith, one of the council's most fiscally conservative members and a reserve LAPD officer. "If you are saying don't touch police, don't touch fire, that means you're going to . . . close libraries, stop paving streets."

The head of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn., meanwhile, criticized Villaraigosa for using Monday's news conference to drum up support for Proposition S. Executive Director Kris Vosburgh accused Villaraigosa and the City Council of adding to the city's fiscal problems by approving the pay raises for municipal workers.

"What he is doing is standard procedure for public officials when they are trying to wring more money out of taxpayers," Vosburgh said. "That is, they threaten those services we value most. In this case, public safety."

Los Angeles County government appeared to be in better fiscal shape than the city, even though it too has felt the pinch of the downturn in sales taxes, real estate taxes and state revenues.

The county's chief executive, William T. Fujioka, said that he was more concerned about a projected $220-million shortfall in state aid, and that cuts probably would be borne mostly by county social service agencies, and food stamps, mental health services and substance abuse programs, among others.

"L.A. City Hall is in much worse condition than L.A. County," said Fujioka, the city's former budget analyst. "We're in a good position to weather this storm."

Villaraigosa proposed his cuts after City Administrative Officer Karen Sisson released a midyear budget report that revealed the $155-million shortfall.

Sisson said she was less concerned about the rise in expenses than the rapid decline in revenues.

"We didn't bank on this mortgage crisis, which became a credit crunch, which has rippled through the economy in ways that no one foresaw," she said.

Sisson recommended a series of measures to reduce the shortfall by $117 million, including the sale of three former animal shelters and a delay in the construction of police and fire stations.

Sisson also was looking at tapping money identified for gang prevention programs and the promotion of tourism in the San Fernando Valley.

The cuts proposed by Sisson and Villaraigosa, which require City Council approval, would still leave the city nearly $3 million in the hole. The mayor did not say how he would make up the remainder.

To reach the $35 million in cuts he laid out Monday, however, Villaraigosa said he would sell 512 city cars, or 5% of the city fleet, for a savings of $3.5 million.

He would suspend city hiring for the remainder of the fiscal year, except for the most critical positions in public safety or those that generate revenue, and suspend nonemergency overtime, saving at least $2.5 million.

In addition, he would sell four vacant fire stations and three vacant animal shelters, to generate another $3 million to $5 million. And he called for the city to pursue the sale of unused libraries, as well.

The voluntary employee furloughs, if successful, would save the most -- $20 million. City workers who do not handle public safety would be asked to take five days off without pay before July 1.

Villaraigosa's aides said the furloughs could be spread over the next six months to avoid further disruptions in services and to lessen the financial strain on employees.

Barbara Maynard, who represents a coalition of city unions, had no comment on the furlough plan.

But Councilwoman Wendy Greuel predicted that, if done properly, the furloughs would not diminish city services.

"This is a time in which there are no sacred cows. We have to put everything on the table," said Greuel.

She added that she would not consider any plan that would rework Villaraigosa's goal of hiring 1,000 new police officers by 2010.

Villaraigosa predicted that residents would feel the effect of his proposed reductions.

"You can't cut the amount of money we're talking about . . . and not have it impact city services," he said, without elaborating.

duke.helfand@latimes.com

david.zahniser@latimes.com

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/los_a ... &cset=true

Times staff writer Jean-Paul Renaud contributed to this report

he he he. Hey Tony.....alittle short of money?

Don't even get me started on this illegal loving, (former?) gangbanger, double agent of Mexico!!!

This city has been pillaged and plundered by the Mexican mafia!!! The crime and corruption is beyond your imagination! They have robbed us blind and they will stop at nothing until they have stolen every last dime from our wallets!

When Villar took office, the general reserve fund was at an all time high of around $450M; today the fund is back down to 2002 levels of around $250M!!! This on top of the fact that property tax revenues have tripled and quadrupled since the housing boom.

The ONLY solution is for ALL of them to take a PERMANENT furlough but that will never happen because ALL of the districts are jerry-mandered.

The only light at the end of the tunnel right now...is to get rid of FABIAN NUNEZ ON FEB. 5TH!

VOTE NO ON PROP 93 (Term limits)
VOTE NO ON MEASURE S (Phone tax)

Villaregosa will basically cut jobs, conduct fire sales, do anything and everything to save money.

However, he will not do the one thing that is causing this problem which is cutoff the services to his beloved illegal invaders.

He would rather cut the job of an American Citzen rather than deny any services to his illegal invaders. We all know that Villaregosa's loyalties will ALWAYS be with his fellow illegals.

This guy needs to be removed from office.

Originally Posted by CaliNative

Despite the troubling financial situation, Villaraigosa pledged to continue his 1,000-officer expansion of the Los Angeles Police Department -- an effort he called key to attracting business, even if it means cutting other services such as street paving and graffiti removal.

In other words, he is running LA exactly like Tijuana is run.

Originally Posted by Bowman

Originally Posted by CaliNative

Despite the troubling financial situation, Villaraigosa pledged to continue his 1,000-officer expansion of the Los Angeles Police Department -- an effort he called key to attracting business, even if it means cutting other services such as street paving and graffiti removal.

In other words, he is running LA exactly like Tijuana is run.

exactly
it is obvious what the real problem in LA is, and now he wants a phone tax (prop S) geeez... This guy needs to be voted out of office

www.WalterMooreForMayor.com

Originally Posted by CaliNative

it is obvious what the real problem in LA is, and now he wants a phone tax (prop S) geeez... This guy needs to be voted out of office

www.WalterMooreForMayor.com

I wonder if Carlos Slim, the world's richest man who owns the phone system in Mexico, will get his cut of the phone tax?

awwww.....don't make fun of our pretty little glamour boy Tonybaloney. He has to get ready for his many spotlight news appearances with his compadre Calderon... and with Billary.... and Fabian Nunez....and with La Raza....and with the Latino Chamber of Commerce....

As far as road paving in LA is concerned it's every driver for themselves and that's the way it's been here for a long time. The roads are in such bad condition that tires are blown out all over the place on streets and freeways. No one seem to care except the damaged and wrecked drivers.

Here is an email from Walter Moore explaining the phone tax...he is running against Tony LaRaza in 2009.

Mayor Villaraigosa's Prop S Lying Team Goofs
By Walter Moore, Candidate for Mayor of Los Angeles, www.WalterMooreForMayor.com

To terrify uninformed voters into approving Prop S, Mayor Villaraigosa
has sent his surrogates to explain to the press the horror and anarchy
that will ensue unless the faux tax "cut" is adopted.

Hence, for example, today's Daily News reports that "Chief
Administrative Officer Karen Sisson said last week that she
anticipates the city could be short as much as $300 million," and
"expects to release a grim mid-year financial report today."

Likewise, Mayor Villaraigosa's chief propagandist, Matt Szabo "said
the city would have to cut police and fire services if it lost the
telephone tax."

Scary stuff, huh?

The problem is, the Mayor's lying team forgot to send the memo to all
department heads to stay mum on spending.

You see, today's L.A. Times includes an article about how the very
same City Hall haunted by the prospect of cutting police and fire
services has nonetheless decided to proceed full speed ahead with a
new multi-million dollar subsidy for -- your guessed it -- downtown
developers.

Budget, schmudget, City Hall will announce today that it has committed
$16.5 million of your money to developers who will spend $20 million
of their own to spruce up buildings on Broadway.

So I guess the "S" in Prop S stands for "subsidies are sacrosanct."
Villaraigosa and his lying team will try to scare you with cuts in
police and fire, but if you're a downtown developer, don't worry:
subsidies are sacrosanct.

Vote "no" on this stinker, and tell your friends to do likewise, would
you?

The City of L.A. already has the highest taxes in the county. The
business income tax alone -- which no other city in the county has --
brings in $477 million per year. All the other cities around us
somehow manage to survive with lower taxes. We can, too. We just
need different people running the city -- like, say, making me the
Mayor in 2009.

So let's get rid of Prop S on February 5, 2008, and then start working
on getting me elected in March 2009.

www.WalterMooreForMayor.com

John and Ken have been talking about Measure S for weeks.

From what they say, there has been an illegal tax on the phone bill for years. This is how they can say it's a tax reduction. Because if voted on the tax will be less than now but, and it's a big but, people have been illegally taxed for years. So in actuality John and Ken feel the people of LA are due refunds. Those guys are great at exposing the sleeze of politicians.

Vote no on Measure S!