Budget Crisis

A new Rasmussen poll about the California's budget woes reveals a deeply frustrated electorate unhappy with its elected leaders and their options to balance the budget. A startling 94% called the fiscal crisis "very serious," while only 2% rated Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's budgetary leadership as excellent. Half those surveyed, 50%, called his handling of the crisis poor. Schwarzenegger's plan to fill the budget with billions of dollars in federal aid, when framed as a "bailout," was supported by 46% of those surveyed.

SALTON SEA STATE RECREATION AREA - During the heyday of the Salton Sea, when the Hollywood crowd and others came to play in large numbers, this strip of beaches, campsites and fishing spots along the sea's northern shore was one of California's most popular parks. But that was years ago. The popularity of the recreation area has plummeted in recent decades, and now the area is on a list of parks to be closed because of the state's financial woes. Unlike other parks slated for closure, this one may never come back, park officials said.

When the Arizona State Senate broke into disarray last week during its fourth special session in four months to deal with this state's seemingly perpetual budget crisis, Senate President Robert "Bob" Burns told his colleagues: "It amazes me we're having this much trouble. This is the easy part." It took until Monday for the GOP-controlled Legislature to pass $300 million in spending cuts, ones they had already approved in June but which were vetoed by the state's Republican governor, Jan Brewer.

Setting the stage for a battle with city employees and fellow elected officials, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa called Friday for the elimination of 669 city jobs - 231 through layoffs - even as he also sought to add police officers and restore some Fire Department services. The bulk of the job cuts proposed in the mayor's new $7.2-billion budget would affect civilian employees at the Los Angeles Police Department, where 159 clerks, secretaries and other administrators would be put out of work.

Maybe, one day, something good will come out of California's budget crisis. Yeah, that's probably an overly optimistic thought. But it's what I felt when I attended an event on the campus of Cal State Northridge last week. Only a fraction of the student body was there, not more than 200 people sitting and standing in circles on the grass. They had arrived for a series of "teach-ins" on the Cal State system's budget crisis, organized by Chicano studies professors and students on a furlough day for the professors.

The solution to a balanced budget: Pay all state officials with IOUs. GEROGE R. VARGO Frazier Park

California officials are considering significant cuts to major programs to close the state's budget deficit. Among them: Healthy Families, which provides youth medical coverage; CalWorks, which serves poor families with children; and Cal Grants college loans.

The slashing of Los Angeles' municipal arts offerings is underway, with seven layoffs to take effect April 1 and eight more expected when the fiscal year ends June 30, as City Hall tries to cope with a budget crisis. Olga Garay, executive director of the Department of Cultural Affairs, said Monday that she had to figure out how the Warner Grand Theatre in San Pedro and the William Grant Still Arts Center in West Adams will be staffed after the April 1 layoffs of their directors. And the City Council may get an earful at its meeting Wednesday from supporters of four neighborhood arts centers -- two in Barnsdall Park in Hollywood, two next to the Watts Towers -- that are among nine facilities City Hall wants to unload on private nonprofit operators, in hopes of cutting jobs.

A coalition of one Re "Strikes on Libya intensify," March 21 Here we go again, attacking another country as part of a coalition. It starts out as a coalition, then, when the conflict continues, the other members quit, leaving the U.S. to foot much of the bill. Time and time again we end up fighting the battle alone for years and paying for something we cannot afford. Why don't we ever get out when the others leave? Meanwhile, we are laying off teachers and police, unemployment remains at unacceptable levels, healthcare is unattainable for many and the overall economic struggle continues.

The budget crisis in Los Angeles may have unpleasant consequences for concert- goers, Lakers fans and even Dodgers fans on the day of the first game of the National League Championship Series: gridlock. For more than a decade, the city has covered the full cost of providing traffic officers for events at the Greek Theatre, Hollywood Bowl, Coliseum, Sports Arena and former Olympic Auditorium. Similarly, it absorbed part of the cost for traffic officers who keep cars moving around Dodger Stadium and Staples Center.

Costa Mesa's police chief resigned abruptly Monday, leaving behind a blistering four-page memo that calls the City Council majority "unethical and immoral" and accuses them of manufacturing a fiscal crisis in order to slash the city's workforce by nearly half. By day's end, Costa Mesa City Manager Tom Hatch announced he had already hired a replacement for Chief Steve Staveley and angrily condemned the departing chief's memo as "unprofessional" and "potentially libelous. " Staveley's departure marks a significant ratcheting up of tensions at City Hall, where municipal leaders have pledged to cut payroll and pension costs by laying off workers and contracting out municipal services.

We have watched a series of disasters sweep through the nation this spring, taxing the emergency services of states and the federal government. In Joplin, Mo., one of the scariest scenarios occurred when the tornado that leveled a third of the city also knocked out one of its main hospitals, St. John's Regional Medical Center, at the exact moment when hospital care was needed most. We don't have killer tornadoes in California, of course, but our hospitals could be just as vulnerable to the disasters we do have.

Even as deep federal budget cuts loomed at the end of last year, members of Congress from both parties paid taxpayer-funded bonuses to their staffs. Overall, House members spent about $21.5 million more on their office payrolls for the fourth quarter of 2010, when bonuses are traditionally paid, than they spent for the average of the three previous quarters, according to LegiStorm, a Washington group that tracks congressional pay. Defeated and retiring lawmakers paid an average bonus of about $4,000.

Republican critics called on Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday to stand up to his union allies in Sacramento as he was joined on his budget tour for the first time by a GOP legislator. FOR THE RECORD: Governor's Newhall visit: An article in the April 22 LATExtra section about Gov. Jerry Brown's visit to Newhall said that the William S. Hart Union School District had the highest test scores of any large district in the state. It should have said that the district had the highest test scores of any high school district in the state with more than 10,000 students.

Passport Day in the USA , when U.S. passport agencies open their doors to passport and visa applicants and other members of the public without requiring appointments, has been canceled because of the federal budget crisis. The annual event had been scheduled for Saturday. A notice Friday from the U.S. State Department, forwarded by Howard Josephs, customer service manager of the Los Angeles Passport Agency, stated: "Because of a possible government shutdown, the Department of State must cancel 'Passport Day in the USA,' which had been scheduled for Saturday, April 9, 2011.  During this annual event, passport agencies and participating passport acceptance facilities nationwide open their doors for U.S. citizens to receive passport services without an appointment.

It's another sorry saga in Sacramento: Gov. Jerry Brown and the Legislature botching the governor's Plan A for healing the bleeding budget. Who's to blame? And what now? The first question is easy to answer: Blame everyone and everything. Blame the Democratic governor and, to a lesser extent, Democratic legislators. Blame short-sighted Republican lawmakers. Blame the labor unions that intimidate Democrats. Blame the hate-mongering radio entertainers and a Washington-based anti-tax demagogue (Grover Norquist)

Even as the state grappled with a budget crisis last year, bureaucrats spent nearly $45 million on new vehicles, almost $30 million on new furniture and more than $2 million on off-site meetings and conferences, a legislative panel has found. The expenditures were outlined in a report released Monday by the Assembly Committee on Accountability and Administrative Review, which plans to call on state agency managers to explain their spending at a hearing Wednesday. "These expenses came despite an executive order from the governor last year for each state agency to cut costs and eliminate vehicle purchases unless they were for emergency purposes," said Mark Martin, a consultant for the committee.

A day after Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa unveiled a "watershed" labor agreement with city workers, he was quick to send a pointed message to other municipal unions. "We will be asking all employees and departments to consider how they too can offer reasonable, responsible changes at this time of historic deficits," the mayor said Friday. Though the pact tentatively struck with a coalition representing about 19,000 workers will help ease the city's budget crisis, its real import could be elsewhere: pressuring other city unions to follow, providing a multiplier effect — and tens of millions of dollars in additional savings.

A coalition of one Re "Strikes on Libya intensify," March 21 Here we go again, attacking another country as part of a coalition. It starts out as a coalition, then, when the conflict continues, the other members quit, leaving the U.S. to foot much of the bill. Time and time again we end up fighting the battle alone for years and paying for something we cannot afford. Why don't we ever get out when the others leave? Meanwhile, we are laying off teachers and police, unemployment remains at unacceptable levels, healthcare is unattainable for many and the overall economic struggle continues.