Yaroslavsky Calls Bradley’s Budget Outline a Tax Drain

Blasting Mayor Tom Bradley’s record $3.2-billion budget proposal as a “a bureaucrat’s budget” that will lead to new taxes, Los Angeles City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky opened the annual hearings on the city’s finances Monday with a vow to fight any new fees.

Yaroslavsky, chairman of the council’s Finance and Revenue Committee and one-time mayoral aspirant, said the mayor’s spending plan would add 1,500 employees but, except for 500 more police officers, would not increase services.

“A lot of what’s in this budget . . . doesn’t mean a hell of a lot to me as a citizen,” Yaroslavsky said. “One has to ask himself the question, where does all this money go?”

In addition to signaling rougher-than-usual sledding ahead for the mayor’s budget, Yaroslavsky’s comments were yet another sign that the council may be increasingly willing to challenge a weakened mayor. Earlier this year, council President John Ferraro announced his plan to retool committees to give the council more latitude to take on such issues as housing and the environment.

Some of the 15 council members have taken Bradley’s slim victory in the primary election earlier this month, with a surprisingly low 52% of the votes cast, as a sign that the mayor no longer has the mandate he once enjoyed.

If Monday’s Finance Committee meeting is any indication, a major sticking point in getting the required council approval for the 1989-90 city spending plan will be Bradley’s proposal to begin a $33-million trash recycling program for which he has not made any financing provision.

The program, which could begin in July, is an attempt to deal with the city’s worsening landfill crisis, and City Council members are generally in agreement that it must be adopted.

“At least he should present some credible options for paying” for the recycling program, Yaroslavsky said. “He is leaving us with no choice but to . . . lay people off or adopt a recycling fee.”

A spokesman for Bradley, who is on a trade mission in the Far East, said the mayor will have no comment on the daily council debate on the budget.

Earlier, Bradley directed Board of Public Works President Ed Avila and City Administrative Officer Keith Comrie to head a committee to suggest ways to pay for the recycling program.

Councilman Richard Alatorre, another Finance Committee member, said: “We’ll have to see the options and make the difficult decisions.”

He said it is “repugnant to even think of” a recycling fee but added that it may be necessary.

Estimates by Bradley’s office place the possible trash recycling fee at about $43 a year per household.

Yaroslavsky said he prefers to have the recycling program paid for out of general city revenues so that it will get close council scrutiny each year. But that would mean cuts in other programs.

The rhetoric became heated at times in the hearing. At one point, Yaroslavsky called the budget proposal a “spending orgy.”

He pointed to staff increases, such as 10 new positions in the mayor’s office, as not directly adding to the level of service provided to the taxpayers.

“That’s a 16% increase. Where’s the justification. . . ? This book is riddled with examples like this,” said Yaroslavsky, pointing to the 793-page budget proposal.

Yaroslavsky directed Comrie to prepare a report comparing staffing and service from each city department in 1978 to the current levels and to compare Los Angeles staffing and service with that of surrounding cities.

Yaroslavsky also said he is concerned with some rosy city revenue estimates. With a relatively strong economy, economists and the city administrative officer have projected increases in city revenues of 7.5% to 10% for the fiscal year 1989-1990 that begins on July 1. Bradley’s proposal assumes that the highest estimated revenues will all be spent.

One estimate in particular that Yaroslavsky questioned was parking ticket revenues. The city transportation agency has estimated that it will raise $101 million in fines in the coming fiscal year, while acknowledging that it has already missed its current year estimate of $88 million by more than 10%.