Bradley Cites Dire Impact of State Cuts : Budget: Libraries would close and 1,000 police officers would lose jobs if proposed reductions occur, the mayor says.

Proposed state budget cutbacks would level a “devastating blow” at efforts to rebuild Los Angeles, and could force the layoff of 1,000 police officers and the complete shutdown of the library system, Mayor Tom Bradley said Thursday.

Standing beside newly arrived Police Chief Willie L. Williams, Bradley presented an array of dire scenarios he said would materialize if the state imposes budget cuts of $300 million over two years.

He said the cuts could force the city to cut its already understaffed police force to 6,900 officers--down from the current 7,900 and well below last year’s high of 8,300. Also threatened, according to Bradley, are libraries, parks, fire stations and other facilities.

“The conversations we hear coming out of Sacramento alarm us,” Bradley said. “Indeed, they shock us.”

The news offered a grim welcome to Los Angeles for Williams, who only two days before had been sworn in amid pomp and ceremony at the Police Academy.

“There is no police chief in the country that can do what may be asked of us in the next couple of days,” Williams said. “We are not worrying about trying to be successful or popular. We are just worried about being able to survive.”

Thursday’s joint news conference by Bradley, Williams and several other city officials came as the state entered the second day of a new fiscal year without a budget. Legislators and Gov. Pete Wilson remained deadlocked Thursday on proposals to balance the budget, as the state mailed IOUs in place of checks to 12,000 people for income tax returns.

Triggering the consternation in Los Angeles is a proposal to balance the state budget by taking about $1 billion in funds ordinarily used to compensate cities for losses suffered after passage of Proposition 13.

Under this proposal, Los Angeles would lose $180 million in the current fiscal year and another $120 million next year, according to a report by the League of California Cities.

City Hall budget analysts on Monday made a list of proposed cuts to deal with such reductions in an annual budget of $3.8 billion.

Williams said the police cut scenario would leave Los Angeles with about 2.3 officers per 1,000 citizens, only about half the police staffing ratio in Chicago and well below the ratio of 4.2 officers to 1,000 citizens in the Philadelphia Police Department, which he just left.

“Any thought of reducing this department any further, by one officer, much less 1,000 officers, is unconscionable,” Williams said. “It would be very challenging to deliver the minimum basic public safety requirements that the citizens of this city have now.”

Bradley said the cuts could go well beyond the LAPD, forcing the closure of a wide range of facilities, including all of the city’s libraries, 136 recreation and park facilities, 33 senior citizen centers and half of the city’s fire stations.

But several factors could mitigate the damage of the proposed cuts. First, legislators are considering proposals that would allow cities and counties to raise taxes to make up the shortfall. The new taxing authorization might include a jump of up to 1 1/4% in local sales taxes.

Los Angeles officials have objected that sales tax increases would fall too heavily on the poor.

Even if the state cuts become a reality, city officials have other funding options before they go ahead with all the extreme cuts suggested Thursday. This year, for example, Bradley and the City Council closed an estimated $183-million deficit with a combination of program reductions and raids on a parking lot trust fund, Community Redevelopment Agency funds and airport revenues.

Still, City Controller Rick Tuttle cautioned that the city’s financial picture is gloomy, because projections for tax revenue this year were made before the riots that swept the city.

Los Angeles officials said the proposed state cuts for cities are particularly unfair to the most needy urban areas, such as Los Angeles. That is because the Proposition 13 compensation funds have gone only to cities that were incorporated when the measure passed in 1978.

Newer and often wealthier communities such as Malibu, Rancho Mirage and Simi Valley do not get the funds anyway, so they would not suffer reductions.

“It’s odd and troubling that the state’s leadership would find itself in an alliance with rural and suburban parts of this state,” City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky said, “against the cities of this state, which need help so badly.”

City officials have asked that instead of the property tax reduction, state officials cut vehicle license fees that are passed on to cities so that the cuts would be felt equally in all areas.