Reagan Budget Would Hurt City--Bradley

Mayor Tom Bradley Friday predicted drastic cuts in city services and a loss of 1,400 city jobs if Congress passes the federal budget proposed by the Reagan Administration.

Hardest hit would be the city’s library, recreation and parks and public works systems, Bradley said at a City Hall press conference. But after questioning, he added that no city department, including the Police and Fire departments, would be exempt from cuts if the Reagan budget is approved.

Standing by charts that indicated that 60% of the library budget, 43% of the recreation and parks budget and 57% of the water and electricity budget would be eliminated, Bradley later said he “obviously” could not make such large cuts in those areas.

Across-the-Board Cuts

The proposed $55 million in federal revenue-sharing cuts could have the effect of gutting those departments, Bradley said, but “legally, technically and practically” he would make cuts “across the board” in all city departments. “You would eliminate other entire departments if you tried to preserve the police and fire budgets and make that level of cuts everywhere else.”

Bradley is campaigning for reelection in April, and after the press conference, Deputy Mayor Tom Houston tried to downplay the suggestion of any loss to the politically sensitive Police and Fire departments.

“Traditionally, the bulk of the cuts would have to come from libraries, park and recs and public works, tree trimming, things like that,” Houston said. “If there were cuts there would be less cuts in police and fire.”

Loss of 1,400 Employees

Bradley said it is “unfair, it is wrong to ask cities to share an unreasonable portion of the burden” for balancing the federal budget deficit. The loss of the revenue-sharing funds would mean the loss of 1,400 city employees, he estimated.

In addition, a total of $24 million in housing and community grants would be lost, he said. That would mean 3,000 to 4,000 housing units in the city would not be built or rehabilitated annually, said Doug Ford, general manager of the Community Development Department.

The Para Los Ninos program for Skid Row children, which receives $66,000 yearly in city funds, would likely lose its funding, as would other community programs, Bradley said.

Transit would be another service affected by proposed federal cuts in operating subsidies. The Southern California Rapid Transit District board, which this week voted to raise bus fares to 85 cents in July, would be forced to raise fares as high as $1.20 without the subsidies, Bradley said.

Dire Predictions

Asked if he and others did not also make dire predictions that did not come true before the passage of the property tax-cutting initiative Proposition 13, Bradley said state “bail-out” money was the only reason the city avoided fiscal disaster. Without the bail-out money from the state, he said, “the very predictions that had been made would have come true.”

Councilman John Ferraro, Bradley’s major rival in the April mayoral election, said Friday he thought it was too soon to talk about the possible effects of the federal budget.

“I think we should see what the revenue-sharing final decision is before we start talking about cutting recreation and parks,” he said. If forced to cut city services, Ferraro added, he would not touch the Police and Fire departments.

Bradley said he would work with other mayors, the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the National League of Cities to fight the proposed domestic cuts.