Hummana...hummana...hummmana...hummana...IT SURE AS HELL "IS" A FINANCIAL EMERGENCY!
I'm flabbergasted! We all know that if The Mayor and L.A. politicians are admitting there is a financial crisis, you KNOW it's even worse than they admit, because politicians always like to put up an "everything is A-OK" ("What me worry?") front.
And Zuma Dogg has heard that the City of LA's budget deficit is more like $600-$700 million, even with Prop S money. But after my man Gerry Miller, Chief Legalese Reviewer for City of Los Angeles reviewed Mayor Antonio Loserosa's budget cut plans, I think we see for the first time that the City is in REAL trouble.
REAL trouble is what I consider ia ahead, when the mayor throws his best pitch at coming up with a massive plan to cut the budget, and the legalese analyst calls a way outside pitch.
This isn't about Zuma Dogg pushing an anti-Villar agenda. If the City of LA was a financial market, it would be the subprime market, and the bubble just burst. Read this review. Not laughing. If you love the City of Los Angeles, this is a pretty somber article.
Mayor criticized on budget rescue plan
[More like Mayor's budget plan revealed as nothing more than a drip of a drop in the bucket.]
Analyst says proposed steps won't address L.A.'s financial crisis.
By David Zahniser, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
February 26, 2008
Los Angeles' top policy analyst gave negative reviews Monday to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's plan to address the city's budget crisis, warning that some major proposals would be unworkable or save far less than the mayor predicts.
Chief Legislative Analyst Gerry Miller said the mayor's requests would not come close to saving the $20 million claimed by the mayor. [An 18 page report of "non-closeness".]
Miller also said many of the city-owned cars that Villaraigosa wants to sell were purchased with financing that requires them to be kept for a minimum of six years -- making them ineligible as a current cost-cutting option.
He suggested that officials instead save money by not hiring 45 police officers who are scheduled to expand the force next month. [LOL! Gerry, you know I love you and you are a great legalese de-bunker, but, are you nuts!?!? Even if that WAS the only answer...that's the ONLY thing NOT on table for cuts. Are you TRYING to get the mayor un-re-elected? I guess you can't ask a legalese reviewer for solutions. It's like asking Rainman how much a candy bar costs.]
"There is no question that the mayor and the council will have to pursue more aggressive cost-cutting measures. However, cutting cops while preserving perks is not an option," that bitter loser Szabo added.
With tax revenue stagnant at best, the city could see another $300 million shortfall by July 1, the start of a new fiscal year. [It's always more/worse.)
Faced with such dire numbers, Villaraigosa trumpeted a plan last month to reduce the budget shortfall by $35 million, largely by asking public employees to stay home and by selling city cars, cellphones and buildings, such as unused fire stations.
[Asking employees to stay home? I'm sure everyone will be volunteering to make less money! Start counting the savings now! How about asking them to voluntarily cut their pay, too? Selling cell phones? Although everything helps, I hope extra cell phones isn't THAT MUCH of a factor. How about putting less toilet paper in the bathrooms?]
Councilman Bill Rosendahl quickly protested, saying that he had spent years trying to convert some of those surplus properties into affordable housing in his Westside district, where rents have skyrocketed. [Screw affordable housing. There's plenty of room on City streets.]
In his report, Miller kept alive the notion of selling city buildings. But he warned that doing so would only delay the city's larger problem -- too many expenses with too little revenue.
By selling off its land, "the city would be using an asset that almost always appreciates in value to meet current expenditure problems, thereby compounding the city's structural imbalance" in its budget, Miller wrote.
[This guy is the only guy who talks any sense. Except he doesn't realize Villarasshole doesn't care about "compounded imbalances", cause he'll be out of office by then, and it will be someone else's problem. His chip will already be cashed in!]
The city's top legislative advisor also voiced strong doubts about Villaraigosa's voluntary furlough suggestion, which was supposed to apply to any city worker who is not employed by the Police Department, Fire Department or Bureau of Sanitation.
So far, the response from employees has been weak. (See full article for numeric details.) "As a voluntary program, this seems very unlikely to occur," Miller wrote.
The budget analysis also found that the 236 cars Villaraigosa wants to sell would probably not generate $1.2 million, as predicted by the mayor. [Math isn't the mayor's strong suit. Neither is honesty.]
Because the city bought the cars using "certificates of participation" -- a form of municipal debt -- only cars purchased before 2002 would be eligible. [Insert "Price is Right" loser sounder. Whomp, whomp, whomp, whomp -- (deflated) whooooooomp...]
Still, an even more difficult problem will face the council in a few months.
"Simply meeting the police hiring plan for 2008-09 will require substantial, and perhaps unacceptable service reductions across the board in virtually every non-public safety department," Miller wrote. [WHAT HAPPENED TO THE TRASH COLLECTION FEE MONEY FOR 1000 NEW COPS!?!? WHAT HAPPENED TO THE TRASH COLLECTION FEE MONEY FOR 1000 NEW COPS!?!?! WHAT HAPPENED TO...]
Szabo voiced dismay that other city officials had not heeded Villaraigosa's call for "quick action" on his proposals to reduce the deficit. [Because that's what loser, crybabies do...they voice dismay in frustration of their own "bads". (See "shady corruption."]
The defeated crybaby accused Miller of failing to offer more budget-cutting alternatives. "The report makes a lot of theoretical arguments as to why we can't take action, as opposed to offering solutions for how we can," he said.
[HE'S NOT THE POLICY SETTER, YOU DUMMY, HE IS THE REVIEWER OF YOUR POLICY...DUH...or is that, DOH! Maybe the mayor should do Gerry's job, and Gerry can run the city if you need him to tell you.]
I KNOW A BILLION WAYS TO SAVE MONEY...CUT BACK ON YOUR SHADY CORRUPTION YOU MONEY GRUBBING MAYOR! YOU'RE NOT FOOLING ANYONE. The City could thrive off the money being diverted into shady non-profits that are run by City Hall staffers and their relatives and cronies. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?! Some of these folks will be lucky if they don't end up in prison like Enron executives.
MEANWHILE, this ain't funny, y'all...It's fun to blame Antonio, but this is also a commentary on where the U.S. economy is headed. He didn't get us in this mess, but I still think the real savings is to be had in cutting back on corruption.
full article
zumadogg@gmail.com
PROGRAMMING NOTE: See video of Villaraigosa on Charlie Rose. It's posted on a thread below on this blog. It's almost a full hour, and it's a MUST watch for the "Mayor Sam Crowd". Charlie grills him on a lot of topics I'm sure the mayor would have preferred to avoid. The mayor probably comes off OK to your Average Joe watching at home...but to political blog readers, like you and I, it's absolutely priceless! (Gets better as it goes along.) Click here (It's a lot to watch in one sitting. I watched it in segments by pausing the video and keeping the window open so you don't have to start from the beginning.)
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