Mayor plans $100 million in budget cuts

Again casting himself in the role of fiscal conservative, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said Wednesday he will propose $100 million in spending cuts in the coming year’s budget.

Villaraigosa, with City Controller Laura Chick at his side during a morning news conference, said the cuts are intended to reduce the persistent imbalance between the city’s financial obligations and what it receives in taxes and other revenue.

That amount was $231 million this year. The mayor wants to reduce it to $131 million in the 2007-08 fiscal year, which begins July 1, and to eliminate it by 2010-11.

“The goal is more ambitious than we earlier envisioned and is going to be harder to achieve,” Villaraigosa said.

The mayor said he was persuaded to rein in costs now because of a projection that city revenue will take a hit in future years -- particularly if property tax revenue falls because of high rates of foreclosures or a drop in land values. In addition, the city is facing contract negotiations with a union representing 11,000 employees this summer, and some utility user taxes are being challenged in court.

In the worst-case scenario, the city could lose as much as $271 million a year. “That would be a budget Armageddon,” Villaraigosa said.

The mayor will submit his budget proposal to the City Council in two weeks. Villaraigosa on Wednesday reaffirmed an earlier promise not to ask for a tax increase but offered few details on how he intends to cut costs.

He did confirm money will be available to continue hiring police officers. Villaraigosa, with council approval, last year raised trash fees to help pay for his goal of hiring 1,000 more officers by 2010.

Villaraigosa already has said the new budget will have enough money to hire 780 more officers, which would result in a net gain of 220 officers after attrition.

If that occurs, it would put the department on track to surpass, by June 2008, the 9,852 officers it had in June 1998, a record high.

Chick said most of the upcoming budget cuts, if done properly, should not be obvious to residents. “The public shouldn’t notice a difference,” she said. “I think that the cuts will be invisible to the public.”

Villaraigosa reduced the ongoing imbalance by about $64 million in the current fiscal year’s $6.7-billion budget. He said the new budget may grow to about $6.9 billion.

To achieve the cuts necessary to balance the next budget, the mayor said he will look for improved efficiencies in the city’s 40-plus departments. Villaraigosa and Chick said most general managers have been told to preserve services but to cut 5% in administrative costs.

Chick touted a number of audits overseen by her department that identified potential savings in several departments. She said she soon will embark on major audits of the city’s pension funds and such quasi-independent city agencies as Los Angeles World Airports and the Department of Water and Power.

Villaraigosa added he believes the new Democratic-controlled Congress will provide increased funding for local homeland security and anti-gang programs.

steve.hymon@latimes.com