The Need for a Bond Issue

Since the passage of Proposition 13 nine years ago, the budgets of most California cities barely cover immediate public needs. Longer-term capital improvements and preventive maintenance seldom survive the competition for tight dollars.

Proposition 13 not only took away tax revenues, it also took away from cities their authority to issue general-obligation bonds--authority that was restored last year in an initiative vote.

Los Angeles City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky now is proposing a $70-million bond issue to finance two important projects that might otherwise be stalled indefinitely. Of the proceeds, $55 million would be used to help rebuild the downtown Central Library and several branch libraries, and $15 million would be spent to replace the city’s oldest and most decrepit police station.

Fire damage to the Central Library was more severe than engineers thought at first. Without the additional $30 million that the bond issue would provide, restoration would be scaled back--a shortsighted approach to a Los Angeles landmark. The remaining $25 million of library funds would be spent to shore up nine branches against earthquakes, expand a branch in Watts and build a branch in an area of the west San Fernando Valley that has no public library.

A new headquarters for the Los Angeles Police Department’s 77th Street Division would be built in South-Central Los Angeles. The building is not only old, it is also so crowded that women officers use a parking-lot trailer as a locker room. Guns must be kept in a basement, which sometimes floods.

Without a bond issue, plans for these necessary projects will stay on the shelf. The law requires approval of the bond issue by two-thirds of the city’s voters, but the first step is getting the issue onto the ballot next June. The Los Angeles City Council should vote to take that first step as soon as possible. The city needs the money because the need for the projects is so urgent.