The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday approved a package of midyear budget reductions proposed by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, but ended up $17 million shy of closing this year's shortfall in part because several members balked at the mayor's plan to sell surplus properties in their districts.
Though the cuts were spread across many departments -- the library and the zoo, the police overtime account, programs such as sexual harassment training, and salary money that hasn't been used because of the hiring freeze -- officials predicted that there would be little impact on city services.
Part of the roughly $74 million in reductions approved by the council -- a plan to borrow $19.3 million to pay for lawsuit settlements -- essentially shifts this year's debt to later years. And officials are counting on collecting $5 million in the next six months from delinquent taxpayers with a new tax amnesty program that would waive fees and penalties.
The city's top policy analysts, Interim City Administrative Officer Ray Ciranna and Chief Legislative Analyst Gerry Miller, warned council members in a memo that most of the cuts were one-time adjustments that would not make a dent in the city's longer-term deficit, which is expected to hit $433 million next year and $550 million the following year.
"We need to take a hard look at the services we provide," Ciranna told the council. "We need to look at some options to reduce growth in salaries and benefits, but possibly also the workforce."
The city's revenues have dropped in the midst of a national recession and could dip even further after New Year's. Villaraigosa has said layoffs may be necessary and has begun negotiating an early retirement package with the city's unions that could affect several thousand employees, but he said Wednesday that it was too early to estimate how much that could save.
Councilwoman Wendy Greuel urged those colleagues who shelved the mayor's surplus property proposal to find ways to make up for that $7 million, but her call went unheeded.
"I don't remember in the last . . . 6 1/2 years I have been here where we have had to make these kinds of cuts," Greuel told fellow council members. "It's serious here in Los Angeles; it's serious for our families and serious for our employees."
To illustrate the severity of the $433-million projected deficit next year, Ciranna and Miller noted in their memo that "the entire elimination" of money for the library and parks departments would not fill that gap. In another scenario, 4,000 civilian positions would have to be cut to make up the deficit.
