Advertisement

Bradley Seeks $2.1-Billion Spending Plan to ‘Hold the Line’

Share
Times Staff Writer

Describing it as “a hold-the-line budget,” Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley proposed on Tuesday a $2.1-billion spending plan for the coming fiscal year, about 9% higher than last year’s.

The most noteworthy increases go to pay for 100 new police officers and an equal number of civilian employees for the Police Department.

Although Police Chief Daryl F. Gates said he would welcome the extra money, he also said he hopes that the City Council, which must approve the budget, will ask for still more money for police.

Advertisement

Gates said he would like the 6,900-officer department to grow by 100 more officers in 1986. That would probably require an additional $3 million and could precipitate a council debate before the June citywide vote on a controversial proposal to raise property taxes in order to pay for 1,000 more new police officers over a period of several years.

Such a debate would echo a major theme of the recent mayoral race between Bradley and Councilman John Ferraro, which had Ferraro arguing that the city could boost the department by 1,300 officers over three years with no increase in taxes. Bradley scoffed at that.

‘Meaningful Changes’

City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, who chairs the council’s Finance Committee, said Tuesday that he finds the budget proposal “sensible and thoughtful.” Yaroslavsky added, however, that he will ask his committee “to make some meaningful changes” in it.

In addition to new funding for the police, the mayor’s budget provides for modest improvements in a variety of city services, including street resurfacing, parks and recreation, sewers and trash disposal, parking enforcement and ambulance and paramedic operations.

Yaroslavsky said he will seek “increases in direct citizen services, particularly in the areas of emergency services and street maintenance.”

Bradley said he considers the budget increases less than satisfactory, saying that improvements in police protection would be “modest,” that backlogs in street maintenance would remain “enormous” and that, in general, “we are a long way from providing our citizens with the optimum level of services.”

Advertisement

For example, Bradley said that although his budget would speed up the pace of street resurfacing from 80 miles a year to 150 miles, it would still fall short of the 300 miles a year needed “to maintain our streets in good condition.”

Bradley said that even a 9% increase in overall budget expenditures, most of which goes to offset an increase in costs attributed to inflation, would require the city to maintain what he called a dangerously low reserve fund of $23 million.

Margin Questioned

“In my opinion, this is not an adequate margin of safety for a city our size,” Bradley said.

The reserve fund traditionally is drawn upon to pay costs resulting from natural disasters and to make up for falling tax revenues during economic hard times.

Although the budget allows for only small increases in city services, City Administrative Officer Keith Comrie said that this would be only the second time since 1978--the year that the property tax-cutting Proposition 13 went into effect--that there has been any increase.

The first time since then was last year, he said, when the budget was $1.94 billion, an increase over the preceding year’s $1.7 billion.

Advertisement

Improvements that can be made this year, he said, are attributable to national economic growth that has slowed since last year but still allows local revenues to stay ahead of inflation.

Comrie noted that even a budget as conservative as the one proposed by Bradley would be in jeopardy if President Reagan succeeds in carrying out a plan to cut in half the amount of federal revenue sharing received by cities.

THE MAYOR’S PROPOSAL

Mayor Tom Bradley has submitted to the City Council a $2.1-billion budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1, which is $185.9 million more than the current spending program.

Police: The mayor asked for $373,936,434--down from $395 million in the current year. That is because the city does not face the one-year 1984 expenses for the Olympics, and the transfer of traffic control personnel to the Transportation Department.

Fire: The $155,399,183 Fire Department budget, up by about $2 million from the current year, would allow enough money for an additional ambulance for the Sylmar area plus conversion of seven ambulances to full paramedic service.

Garbage: The Bureau of Sanitation Budget would rise from the current year’s $62,527,241 to $76,440,900, with more money allocated to a number of waste collection and disposal services.

Advertisement

Cable: Bradley proposed budgeting $592,648 to begin the operation of the Department of Telecommunications, which will regulate cable television.

Advertisement