$2.9-Billion City Budget Calls for Increased Services

Relying on a “robust local economy,” an upbeat Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley unveiled a bountiful $2.9-billion election-year spending plan Tuesday that provides for significant hikes in major city services from police patrols to street sweeping.

The proposed budget is 18.1% higher than the city’s current spending program and $1 billion higher than just four years ago. It calls for the previously announced hiring of 400 more police officers and, among other features, creates a full-time mounted patrol force of 31 officers and 40 horses.

Bradley said city coffers will be flush enough to begin restoring some of the drastic cuts that marked the years immediately following passage of Proposition 13 in 1978. More alleys and streets will be cleaned, more trees will be trimmed and more potholes will be filled if Bradley’s plan is approved by the City Council.

No Tax Increase

“Since 1978, our pattern has been to cut, cut, cut,” said Bradley, who added that his budget calls for “a dramatic increase in the amount of services that this city deserves and ought to have, and we are doing it without increased taxes.”

“Our economy has been robust and we expect that to continue.”

Besides the police funding, many of Bradley’s proposals, including alley sweeping, had been announced in recent months. Coupled with Bradley’s unusual “State of the City” address Monday in which he touched on crime, education and child care issues, the mayor’s budget announcement was somewhat anti-climactic.

Two Bradley allies on the council’s three-member Finance Committee--Richard Alatorre and Robert Farrell--received advance briefings on the budget proposal from the mayor’s staff. Committee Chairman Zev Yaroslavsky did not.

Election Campaign

Yaroslavsky, expected to challenge Bradley’s reelection bid next year, was kept in the dark about the budget until after the mayor’s news conference. His chief deputy, Alisa Katz, was present for Bradley’s announcement and took notes.

Later, in somewhat sarcastic tones, Yaroslavsky said Bradley’s spending blueprint largely mirrored past initiatives by the council and Yaroslavsky himself. He pointedly noted that he, not Bradley, in years past proposed increases in the police force, some of which the mayor either vetoed or resisted.

“It’s an election year and (Bradley) recognizes he’s got to be more practical than he has in the past and part of the practicality of running for reelection is trying to serve the citizens and it’s about time and I’m pleased,” Yaroslavsky said.

“For the first time in 15 years that he’s been mayor, he’s taken the opportunity to address the problems that are of most concern of people in this city directly. . . . The mayor decided this year that he’d rather write the budget than let Zev Yaroslavsky write the budget,” Yaroslavsky said. “That’s his job; that’s what he gets paid $90,000 a year for and I congratulate him for it.”

But the Finance Committee chairman said that he will answer Bradley’s plan next week with proposals of his own. He also hinted he might call for even more police officers to be hired, but did not elaborate.

In recent years, Bradley has often been at odds with City Council members over the hiring of new police officers. While the mayor, himself a former police officer, has given the LAPD top priority since he was first elected in 1973, he has also not spared the department when cuts were made due to shrinking revenues.

Street Violence, Drugs

But with the rise in gang violence and drug trafficking in the city, Bradley has acceded to calls for more officers and Tuesday said he will “do everything within my power to find the resources to continue to increase that department.”

Although the mayor said the proposed 400-officer increase will be all the LAPD can recruit and train in the coming year, Bradley indicated he is willing to listen to proposals for further increases.

Also a potential issue before Yaroslavsky’s committee, and by extension the mayoral race, is the continuation of so-called “temporary” tax increases imposed five years ago to help shore up the city’s then-weak treasury.

Business, utility and hotel bed taxes were all increased in 1983, generating hundreds of millions of dollars in the process. Officials, including Bradley, said at the time that the tax increases would eventually be phased out or reduced.

Asked Tuesday, in light of the city’s rosy fiscal picture, if he might some day recommend that the special taxes be reduced, Bradley responded rhetorically:

“Do you want to cut the new police officers? Do you want to cut back on those (692 new police) automobiles? Do you want to cut back on the tree-trimming expansion? I think if you look at the choices, it’s clear to me those dollars are being well spent.”

But Yaroslavsky said the reduction of those taxes should not be ruled out.

Bradley’s proposed budget is $449 million higher than the current fiscal plan and would involve modest to substantial increases in nearly all city departments. The Department of General Services, which helps run city buildings, would receive the largest single increase in funding, $46 million.

The LAPD is second. Bradley is proposing a 9.9% increase in police spending, from $436.1 million to $479.2 million. But that is nearly $22 million less than Chief Daryl F. Gates had sought.

Overtime Costs

Included in the LAPD proposal is about $11 million to fund overtime costs for special anti-gang and drug trafficking efforts. That is about $2 million less than the current year’s appropriation, but the mayor said he would be amenable to requests for additional funding.

Other highlights of Bradley’s proposed budget include:

- Creation of a new “Clean and Green” job program using junior and senior high students to help clean up streets and graffiti-marred walls.

- Establishment of a citywide “Neighborhood Pride” mural and anti-graffiti program, which would augment the Clean and Green effort.

- A $2.8-million program to “reclaim inner-city parks from gang elements” for area residents.

- Increasing the frequency of tree trimming from once every seven years to once every six years.

THE PROPOSED LOS ANGELES CITY BUDGET

Last year’s budget was $2.4 billion, this year’s budget is $2.5 billion and next year’s proposed budget is $2.9 billion.

Police Department

Last Year: $404.9 million

This Year: $436.1 million

Next Year: $479.3 million

The Police Department would add 400 new officers and activate a full-time 31 member Mounted Police Unit with 8 new civilian personnel and 40 horses.

Fire Department

Last Year: $191.0 million

This Year: $196.0 million

Next Year: $207.2 million

The Fire Department wants to reactivate two single-engine fire companies in Reseda and Eagle Rock and start the replacement of the emergency fire and ambulance radio system.

General Services

Last Year: $163.3 million

This Year: $130.4 million

Next Year: $177.6 million

The budget includes the replacement of 639 vehicles and pieces of construction equipment, 40 new positions and replacement of the city’s largest and oldest staff and equipment carrying helicopter.

Street Maintenance

Last Year: $78.4 million

This Year: $73.8 million

Next Year: $80.3 million

Increases would include five additional seven-person alley cleaning crews, 15 additional two-person spot cleaning crews and four night street sweeping operators; increases tree trimming from a seven-year cycle to a six-year cycle; increases street resurfacing program from 150 miles to 165 miles and the slurry-sealing from 300 miles to 350 miles.

Transportation

Last Year: $58.5 million

This Year: $58.8 million

Next Year: $69.2 million

The budget includes funding for 122 new traffic officers and supervisors and 13 clerical positions to permit the redeployment of traffic officers back to field duty which will increase parking enforcement and improve traffic flow.