Cost Control

Los Angeles County officials on Monday unveiled a $22.8-billion budget for the coming fiscal year that cuts $415 million from the current budget, taps reserves to offset dwindling tax revenue and eliminates 1,684 positions that are mostly vacant. Although county officials want to avoid layoffs, they warned that additional cuts probably will be needed this year depending on the economy and the state budget.

President Obama called his full Cabinet together for the first time Monday and instructed the department heads to cut enough money from their budgets to set a new tone in Washington. But the target the president set for the cuts amounts to a fraction of the overall budget, leaving room for critics to question whether the reductions mean much at all. Obama has asked for $100 million in trims from a budget expected to exceed $3.5 trillion.

General Motors may halt production at some U.S. factories for as long as nine weeks this summer to combat slumping auto sales, according to people familiar with the plan. GM typically closes its facilities for two weeks in July to change production lines for new models. Much like over the winter holidays, the automaker may extend that scheduled shutdown at unproductive plants to help bring down the stockpile of unsold vehicles.

The Obama administration plans to deliver to Congress today a guide for saving about $17 billion in federal spending next year -- as part of the $3.55-trillion budget for 2010 that the president has proposed. Acknowledging that the savings would be a fraction of what President Obama is asking Congress to spend in the record federal budget, the White House called it a worthy start.

The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday got down to the grim business of slashing spending to make up for an expected $530-million budget shortfall, starting with a possible police hiring freeze, mass layoffs and mandatory unpaid furloughs for city workers.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger asked lawmakers to blow up the boxes of government, and on Wednesday they obliged -- though not exactly as he envisioned. A legislative budget committee delayed action on many of Schwarzenegger's proposals for cutting waste, and instead took an ax to operations managed by the governor. They voted to get rid of entire departments and agencies under his authority.

Jackie Robinson played four sports at what was then Pasadena Junior College on his way to breaking major league baseball's color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Fifty years later, pitcher Barry Zito spent a year at Pierce College before transferring to USC, then joined the Oakland A's, where he won the Cy Young award in 2002.

Orange County transit officials voted Monday to eliminate predawn bus service at the end of the year, apparently signaling an end to a program designed to help graveyard shift and low-wage workers get home. The change is part of a general budget-cutting move that will result in reduced bus service throughout the county. The Orange County Transportation Authority is facing severe budget problems and needs to make up for a $33-million shortfall in the coming year's budget, officials said.

Bill Lockyer has some simple, blunt advice for Democratic legislators struggling to make painful budget cuts: Just assume you're not going to get reelected. Then dig in and slash. Democrat Lockyer -- the state treasurer, former attorney general and longtime legislator who was Senate leader -- has experienced many budget brawls, but never a deficit hole as seemingly bottomless as this. Never before has the state staggered so desperately from crisis to crisis.

After trying for weeks to fix a state budget gone out of control, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state lawmakers stood frozen in conflict Wednesday with the state at the brink of a meltdown. A day after the state Senate failed in a late-night bid to close part of a deficit now projected at $26.3 billion, California Controller John Chiang took steps to begin issuing IOUs today to tens of thousands of companies and individuals that are owed millions of dollars by the state.