L.A. Receives Discouraging Budget Forecast for 1993-94 : Finances: A full economic recovery plus staff and service cuts to save $300 million will be required to balance the city’s books, panel is told.

It would take full economic recovery and enough staff and service reductions to save $300 million over the next two years to balance Los Angeles’ budget for the 1993-94 fiscal year, a city finance official said Tuesday.

“The only good news, and it is not particularly good news, is that there is a possibility to bring spending in line,” City Administrative Officer Keith Comrie said in a report delivered to the city Budget and Finance Committee.

Achieving that goal, he said, would require “extremely dramatic” reductions in library and park hours, and the loss of 2,500 staff positions through attrition--assuming there are no new programs, major expansion of existing programs or taxes. The personnel reductions would include 700 police officers, he said.

“It would bring us down to 7,600 officers from the current 8,300 on the force,” Comrie said.

The Police Department will be asked to prepare a report on the impact of such reductions on redeployment of supervisors and front-line officers, as well as on response times.

In his report, Comrie also cautioned, “Undoubtedly, future events will occur which cannot be predicted at this time which will impact both revenues and expenses.”

For example, a proposal to extend Medicare coverage to all of the city’s 30,000 employees--a measure rejected by Congress last year--could cost $17 million in fiscal year 1993-94. A separate proposal for a new radio communication system for the Los Angeles Police Department would also weigh heavily on the city budget.

City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, chairman of the three-member committee, called Comrie’s long-range financial predictions “very disturbing.”

“It paints an even worse picture for us as we look out over the next two years,” Yaroslavsky said. “We’ve got some tough decisions ahead of us to make.”

In an earlier report, Comrie said the city may need to lay off 1,300 employees next fiscal year and freeze all salaries to counter a projected record deficit of $190 million.

The city, which is currently spending 5% more than it is receiving in revenue, is facing a $122-million deficit this year, city officials said.

On Tuesday, the committee approved a plan to balance the current deficit with savings generated through the ongoing hiring freeze and other departmental cutbacks. The plan is expected to go before the full City Council next week.

Comrie is expected to deliver a midyear budget report to the committee in March.

“Economics is not an exact science,” Comrie said. “We are using the best economic consensuses around, but even that is very iffy.”