Hiring 1,300 additional police officers: $130 million.
Planting 1 million trees: $140 million.
Extending the Red Line subway to the beach: $2.7 billion.
All those officers, all those trees, all that track and the more than three dozen other major promises that Antonio Villaraigosa made to the people of Los Angeles during the mayoral campaign will not come cheap.
Just after midnight he became the 41st mayor of the nation's second-largest city, an ascension that will be marked today by an elaborate inauguration ceremony.
Now, Villaraigosa comes face to face with one of the harsh inevitabilities of politics: It's easier to make grand pronouncements than to carry them out.
Even before today, Villaraigosa confronted the city's budget realities, learning that he may have to deal with a potential deficit that could balloon to $278 million within three years. And his agenda faces skepticism from some observers who, though confident in his abilities, say he may have promised too much to deliver in four -- or even eight -- years.
"In my lifetime, I'm not expecting to be able to get on a subway on the Sunset Strip and go to the beach," said Allen Hoffenblum, a Los Angeles-area political consultant who zeroed in on the new mayor's most ambitious proposal, extending the Red Line to the beach in Santa Monica.
As a candidate, Villaraigosa drew criticism for touting lofty goals without offering specific plans to achieve them. Villaraigosa acknowledges his agenda will face financial, political and bureaucratic obstacles, but he insists that Angelenos want a mayor who will lay out a clear path to greatness for their city, not tinker with its problems.
"I've never said that expanding the subway to the ocean would be something I would do in the first term," Villaraigosa said. "What I've said is the next mayor has got to have a vision, to put together a plan for Los Angeles that includes expansion of the subway all the way to the ocean."
Villaraigosa said he would not announce any initiatives or detail how he plans to carry out his many promises in today's inaugural address. "I am going to ask people to dream and think big about Los Angeles," Villaraigosa said. "I am committed to the idea that a great city is a city where we are growing and prospering together."
His speech, titled "A City of Purpose," will address broad themes, including education reform, the need for the city's diverse ethnic groups to come together and the hope that the public will become more involved in improving Los Angeles, said Robin Kramer, the mayor's chief of staff.
In the campaign, Villaraigosa made promises that will require him to find more money -- in some cases, billions of dollars more.
A key promise of his campaign was that he would expand the Los Angeles Police Department by 1,300 officers.
He argued that the current force of 9,220 officers was insufficient for a city the size of Los Angeles, which has fewer officers per capita than other big cities, including New York and Chicago. The same argument was made by former Mayor James K. Hahn and several other mayoral candidates.
To pay for the new officers, as well as for more paramedics and gang-intervention programs, Villaraigosa wants to ask Los Angeles County voters to increase the sales tax by a half-cent.
But winning voter approval would require Villaraigosa to lead an expensive and persuasive campaign. A similar measure failed to win the required voter support last year and still sparks intense opposition.
"I hope he doesn't go that route. It's an abysmal idea," said Kris Vosburgh, executive director of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn. "It punishes taxpayers. It punishes residents."
Villaraigosa has decided to put off going to county voters for a police tax at least until next year, according to spokesman Joe Ramallo. "The first order of business is to identify waste, fraud and inefficiency," Ramallo said.
The administration's idea is that the liberal Democrat and former union activist should first earn the trust of the voters before he asks them to help pay for his big ideas.
Hoffenblum called that a smart strategy, noting that Villaraigosa must build the credibility needed to win passage of sales tax and other high-dollar initiatives.
"His first job is to create the stature necessary to be a successful mayor," Hoffenblum said, adding that Villaraigosa's role in averting a lockout of hotel workers was a good start.
The new mayor also pledged environmental initiatives, including a simple-sounding plan to plant 1 million trees.
But based on the experience of the city Department of Water and Power, which planted 15,000 trees last year, that proposal could cost $140 million.
It also may take much longer than even two four-year terms. The DWP has planted just 37,000 trees in five years. At that rate, it would take 135 years to plant 1 million trees.
