Mayor Releases Budget Proposal Today That Is Almost Certainly Not Going To Work Without FIRINGS AND LOSS OF CITY SERVICES

Nothing new announced today that I haven't heard already (based on a basic internet search), but Mayor Villar went through the motions and officially unveiled his budget proposal that will almost certainly get knocked back down by the unions. Get ready for firings. Get ready for loss of services. Antonio will look good when he fires people and cuts back on the overly fat and excessive city payroll. The Tea Party crowd should LOVE it. Except the city is too inefficient to operate under a leaner workforce. So now is when Villaraigosa's people should REALLY be searching the global marketplace for some Deming 14 Point consultants to teach them how to improve efficiency and reduce waste. (How to do more with less.) Anyway, now it's official:

Mayor's Budget Calls For Unions To Give Back Villar's Campaign Promises

AP: Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's budget plan will call for city workers to make sacrifices.

The Mayor unveiled a propsed budget plan Monday that will call on city workers to make sacrifices and union concessions and all residents to expect to pay more for municipal facilities.

The Mayor also indicated he would take a 12 percent pay cut from his current $223,000.

"The need for shared responsibility and shared sacrifice isn't just rhetoric, it's reality," Villaraigosa said at a City Hall news conference.

The $7.04 billion budget is 1 percent smaller than the $7.11 billion budget that was approved for fiscal year 2008-09.

The Mayor said the sacrifces in the budget was necessary to stave off having to layoff 2,800 city workers.

Villaragosa will hold several Town Hall-type meetings to win the public's approval on the ideas in his proposed budget.

To eliminate an expected $530 million shortfall, the city will ask all city workers to take one upaid hour a week, contribute 2 percent more in their retirement accounts and forgo scheduled pay raises.

To save other monies, the city is also considering consolidating several commissions.

While the budget also calls for a $98 million cut to the LAPD's budget, Villaraigosa said he was also committed to hiring enough officers to push the department pass the 10,000 mark.