Mayor Seeks to Plug $238 Million Hole In His Budget

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will unveil a proposed $7.2 billion city budget Friday that increases city expenditures by about 4.3 percent over the current fiscal year but also calls for the layoffs of hundreds of city workers.

Seeking to close an estimated $238 million budget deficit, the mayor is expected to spread the layoffs across numerous city departments and to eliminate some unfilled city positions.

City workers would pay more for their health care under the spending plan, which also proposes changes to the pension plan for civilian city workers, the mayor said during his State of the City speech on Wednesday.

Villaraigosa has also said city workers need to defer scheduled 5 percent salary raises worth about $50 million.

"The budget I will release will be balanced," Villaraigosa said during the speech. "This budget is prudent. This budget is responsible. This budget will protect vital services that Angelenos rely on, and this budget will ensure that the city stays on a trajectory of long-term fiscal stability."

Villaraigosa will unveil his budget proposal with police Chief Charlie Beck and fire Chief Brian Cummings by his side.

The two public safety departments make up about a quarter of the city's general fund budget. It remains to be seen whether Villaraigosa will propose restoring part of the fire department's budget, which was slashed by more than $50 million last year during the rollout of a new deployment strategy.

Intense media scrutiny in recent weeks of the department's emergency response times under the new deployment have led some City Council members to call for restoring funding to the department. Cummings this week told the City Council that LAFD response times are "very good" for a big city.

Villaraigosa is expected to call for moving 223 employees in the General Services Department's Office of Public Safety into the Los Angeles Police Department, a move that would save the city about $2.9 million per year, according to a report released this week by the city's top budget analyst.

The move would bring the ranks of sworn LAPD officers to above 10,000 and close to Villaraigosa's stated goal in 2005 of adding 1,000 cops to the department.

City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana told the City Council this week the city would be unable to maintain the size of the public safety departments without raising taxes. He recommended doubling the documentary transfer tax, a property sales tax, and increasing a parking tax by 5 percent.

The additional taxes, which would need to be approved by voters, would bring in about $140 million, Santana said.

It is unclear if Villaraigosa will call for the tax increases as part of his budget package. He proposed putting another tax measure to fund transportation projects on the November ballot during his speech Wednesday.