L.A. county, city budgets call for austerity

With the years of overflowing coffers behind them, Los Angeles city and county governments are being forced to cut spending to cope with the state’s economic slowdown, and officials warned that they expect the fiscal picture to only worsen as the year goes on.

Officials in each of the two large governments today released spending proposals for the coming fiscal year, and both show the effects of falling home values and slowing sales tax and other revenue.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s proposed city budget, for the fiscal year starting July 1, was the starkest. It sought to eliminate a $406-million shortfall through measures that included the elimination of 767 jobs – some of them possibly layoffs – and $90 million in fee increases on golf, dog licenses and other city services.

County Chief Executive Officer William T. Fujioka also was forced to propose job eliminations – but no layoffs – to help trim $588 million from the county’s $22-billion budget. Fujioka said his proposal called for no significant fee hikes or reduction of services.

“This county, from my perspective, is in very, very good shape,” Fujioka said. “We will live within our means.”

But balancing the county budget will become increasing difficult as the year goes on. Still left undone is a plan to close a $197-million deficit in its budget for health services next year, and diminished state and federal support for the counties’ social programs has yet to be factored in to Fujioka’s proposal. In a sign of measures to come, Fujioka has directed his staff to consider using a provision in the voter-mandated Measure B to raise up to $40 million through increased property taxes for county trauma centers.

In addition to the city job cuts, Villaraigosa’s proposed budget calls for each employee to take six mandatory furloughs, or unpaid days off, in the coming year. Those furloughs would come on top of the 767 job cuts already planned by the mayor.

“There are some [employees] who would rather lay off more people and not share the pain across the workforce,” Villaraigosa said. “We think it’s better that everybody participates, that everybody shares the burden.”

Furloughs would not apply to police officers, firefighters and sanitation workers and would require the sign-off of the city’s employee unions. The plan – and the overall budget – also must be approved by the City Council.

The mayor’s $7-billion budget proposal offered few surprises, because he has already announced plans to continue hiring 1,000 new police officers and raise the city’s monthly trash fees from $26 to $36 for homeowners. The plan calls for $90 million in increases to trash, golf, parking, recreation, development and animal adoption fees.

One union leader said the city’s residents shouldn’t have to cope with both higher fees and the reductions in services that will come with mandatory furloughs.

“If we’re going to impose these fees on the residents, and then we’re going to ask them to take a furlough cut, we’re going to want to exhaust every other avenue, looking under every rock,” said Bob Schoonover, vice president of Service Employees International Union Local 721, which represents 11,000 municipal workers.

Still, Villaraigosa disavowed one fee hike that has had library lovers up in arms in recent weeks: a $1 charge on transfers and book reservations devised by the mayor’s five appointees on the library commission.

“I didn’t make that proposal. The library commission did,” the mayor said. “They didn’t confer with my office when they did that. It may be that now that they see the proposals I have made, they may reconsider that.”

Despite the increased fees, some city departments would get more money in Villaraigosa’s budget. The planning department would see its budget go up 7.7% compared with the previous year, giving it the money needed to complete a series of neighborhood plans.

The transportation budget would receive 7% more money, some of which would be used to install new left-turn signals. And the Bureau of Street Services would see its budget go up 3%, allowing it to repair 60 additional miles of streets. The financial boost would allow the city to reduce its street repair backlog from 63 years to roughly 40 years, said Bill Robertson, general manager of the Bureau of Street Services.

garrett.therolf@latimes.com

david.zahniser@latimes.com