Author: Gil Alcaraz
This past April 20, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa released a $7.05 billion city budget that relies heavily on cuts within unions such as police officers and firefighters, which are often exempted from such cuts. It also calls on almost every city agency to take a 10% budget cut which would help bridge the $530 million budget gap that Los Angeles has seen recently.
Villaraigosa has also proposed to cut his own $223,000 salary by 12%, which would be a cut of about $26,760, as well as freezing all salaries with the mayor’s office. Other main points of the plan are privatizing parking garages, and leasing out hundreds of city parking meters. The proposal to lease parking garages to private companies is one of his most vital ideas, which would pump an estimated $80 million back into the economy by next year.
After speculating on the situation, Adjunct Diplomacy and World Affairs Professor Arun Swamy said, “From a political standpoint, he [Villaraigosa is making budget cuts in places that he knows people will be willing to pay higher taxes to make up the difference, which is a smart move.”
These cuts to unions as well as other city agencies that the Mayor is calling for would save an estimated $200 million, a number that would equate to laying off around 2,800 employees. Villaraigosa has said that layoffs can be avoided with the L.A. workers’ cooperation with his requests for unpaid days off, no raises, and more funding towards employee health and pension benefits. This plan, however, is seeing a significant amount of opposition. The Coalition of LA City Unions is hoping to bring about an agreement which would allow workers to retire up to five years earlier than planned.
“It would pump money into the economy when it’s needed most” the Coalition of LA City Unions representatives have said. This plan for early retirement would hope to take hundreds of employees off of the payroll.
Many students around campus who were aware of the situation showed support for what Mayor Villaraigosa is trying to do during this economic downfall in our country. “I think the Mayor’s budget cuts are a way to cope with the economic situation. The stimulus bill is only helping the wealthy,” Andrea Kippur (first-year) said. Another student felt that Villaraigosa is doing his best with his latest cuts. “Sometimes people need to make the hard decisions and do the tough things to fix problems, and the Mayor is making the necessary cuts to bring about a solution,” Michael Clegg (first-year) said.
Villaraigosa’s plan also calls for three agencies – the Commission on the Status of Women, the Human Relations Commission and the Commission for Children, Youth, and Their Families – to merge into one department. This move would expect to save approximately $600,000.
Other plans to help the economy would be leasing the L.A. Zoo and Convention Center out to private agencies. The revenue from this, however, would not be seen until the 2010-2011 fiscal year. In an attempt to counteract the budget cuts for the police and firefighter unions, the city firefighters have hired a polling firm to determine if voters would be willing to take a quarter-cent tax raise. This raise in taxes would help to fill the void left by the budget cut for firefighters, paramedics, and 911 operators.
The budget will now be put through a series of hearings with the City Council who will look over the proposals and will vote on them before July 1.
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