Mayor Proposes a ‘Grim’ $2.4-Billion Budget

Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, predicting a “grim picture” for the 1987 fiscal year, unveiled a proposed “hold-the-line” budget Monday that would halt recent advances in the city’s police strength.

Bradley’s $2.4-billion agenda, hampered by a reduction in federal aid to the city, would also defer the purchase of new police cars and curtail such municipal staples as street resurfacing and tree-trimming.

It is the first time in three years that Bradley has not urged the hiring of 100 more officers for the Police Department, currently budgeted at 7,100 officers. Under the mayor’s proposal, police, fire and paramedic services would be maintained at the current service levels. Almost every other city department is targeted for trims, but no layoffs are recommended.

“I wish I could have done it (proposed more police officers) this year, but the money simply isn’t there,” Bradley said at a City Hall press conference.

The $2.4-billion proposal would amount to a 4.2% increase in total appropriations over the previous year, roughly keeping pace with cost-of-living pay hikes and pension demands. But in comparison to the 1986 budget, the city faces the loss of $23 million in federal revenue-sharing. Another $23 million made in interest last year will not be available this year. In addition about $15 million in reserve funds have already been spent.

That, coupled with a generally sluggish economy, makes the city’s financial forecast “a tough pill to swallow,” Bradley said. More than $100 million in departmental budget requests had to be cut, he said.

Bradley’s budget proposal came under immediate criticism from Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, who is considering running for mayor in 1989 when Bradley has said he will run for a fifth term. Because Yaroslavsky also is chairman of the council’s Revenue and Finance Committee, which will have the first review of the proposal, the budget debate may provide the first major forum for mayoral politicking between Yaroslavsky and Bradley.

The City Council is expected to arrive at a final budget in early June.

Yaroslavsky said the city’s financial problems require “some fundamental changes,” rather than “one-time gimmicks” proposed by the mayor, such as the deferred purchase of new police cars.

The question of how to add muscle to the Police Department has dominated council budget debates in recent years. Although the city’s population and crime rate continue upward, the number of sworn officers has decreased from a peak of approximately 7,500 in the mid-1970s to 6,900 in 1982-83--a cut largely attributed to Proposition 13, which restricted the city’s ability to raise taxes. The mayor and council have added 100 new officer positions in each of the last two years.

Wrangling over possible solutions, the council has approved a June ballot measure for voters in South-Central Los Angeles to determine whether residents there want to be taxed extra to pay for extra police protection.

Just last month, the City Council defied the mayor’s recommendations in approving $4.3 million in overtime pay for police. That expenditure eliminated a reserve that would have been transferred into this year’s budget.

Police Chief Daryl F. Gates was shut out on his budget wish list, which included 599 replacement vehicles, 3 helicopters and 317 additional officers. Cmdr. William Booth, a police spokesman, said Gates was out of town Monday and unavailable for comment.

Yaroslavsky, who predicted that the South-Central police tax plan is “doomed to failure,” suggested that the city could instantly recoup more than $2 million for police services by eliminating the city’s Board of Public Works. The councilman called the board “a political boondoggle . . . for political patronage jobs” and said a council vote on whether to decide its fate would be close.

Yaroslavsky also cited $98,000 earmarked for the city’s diplomatic Africa-Los Angeles task force as a bad “call” by the mayor.

“He made it one way; I would have made it another,” Yaroslavsky said.

The money should instead be used for police, the councilman said.

The mayor defended the Africa-Los Angeles task force, saying that the program was recently praised as “very effective” in a letter from Secretary of State George Shultz.

Bradley emphasized that police and fire services have been “my first priority” throughout 14 years as mayor. If unforeseen tax revenues become available later in the year, “I strongly recommend we buy those black-and-white vehicles for the Police Department,” he said.

In addition to delaying the purchase of police equipment, Bradley’s budget-balancing proposals included an $18-million reduction in the capital improvement program and a moratorium on the start-up of major computer systems to save $13 million.

Resurfacing of streets would be reduced from 150 miles to 136 miles during 1987-88, the number of trees trimmed would be reduced from 88,000 to 69,000 and the opening of public swimming pools would also be delayed.

In the search for additional revenues in the post-Proposition 13 era, the mayor proposed expansion of the city’s utility users tax to interstate telephone service, with a projected increase in revenues of $19 million. Recent court decisions prompted the mayor to propose the change.

The utility tax was initially proposed as a temporary measure in 1983, but has been renewed each year. The Los Angeles Taxpayers Assn. said in a news release that it will oppose further extension and expansion of the utility tax.

Bradley ended his press conference by noting that, although fewer streets will be resurfaced, the pothole-filling program continues.

“We’re not going to let this city go to pot or potholes,” he said.

DECLINING FEDERAL DOLLARS

The elimination of revenue sharing has cost the city of Los Angeles $54.1 million over thelast two years. The mayor’s proposed budget totals $2.4 billion.