State Used Outdated Figures on Budget, L.A. Schools Say : Education: No $73-million discrepancy exists, local officials declare. State reviewing a new set of numbers.

The state Legislative Analyst’s Office used incomplete and outdated figures in calculating what it characterized as a $73-million discrepancy in the Los Angeles Unified School District’s budget, school district officials said Tuesday.

“There is no $73-million hole,” said Supt. Sid Thompson, who released budget figures that he said account for a $400-million shortfall in the district’s $3.9-billion budget--a deficit that has been eliminated, partly by cutting employees’ pay.

The analyst’s report--commissioned by state Senate leader David A. Roberti and released last week--said the district had failed to substantiate $73 million of that deficit during a monthlong review of district finances by the state agency.

After receiving the district’s response Tuesday, Bob Loessberg-Zahl, who wrote the state analysis, said his office would contact district officials to reconcile disparities in the two reports.

“We’re still reviewing it, and we’re going to be in touch with the district about it so we can clarify these numbers,” he said. “The numbers in our report were accurate based on the information we had from the district at the time. What the district has done now is present us with an entirely different set of figures.”

But at a news conference Tuesday, Thompson said state officials never requested specific budget shortfall figures, which could have been provided. “This could have been handled very simply by a phone call” to clarify the amount in dispute, he said.

“Instead, we’re finding ourselves answering questions that seem to be more motivated by the politics of the issue than the (finance) issue itself,” he said. “I think there was a bit of a rush to get this information out, and due process wasn’t considered.”

Last week, Roberti used the nine-page state report to bolster his contention that the Los Angeles public school system--the nation’s second-largest--is too “unwieldy” to be managed efficiently and should be carved up into smaller districts.

Officials in the Legislative Analyst’s Office said Roberti had asked that the report be completed by this week’s start of the new legislative session, during which he has pledged to introduce a bill to break up the school district.

But Roberti (D-Van Nuys), the powerful Senate president pro tem who was elected last year to a seat in the San Fernando Valley--where sentiment to break away from the district is strong--denied requesting the financial review for “political purposes.”

The longtime lawmaker said he simply wanted a clarification of the fiscal condition of the district, which faces a strike next month by teachers angry over being forced to take a cumulative 12% pay cut to help close the budget gap.

Tuesday’s counter-report by the district has simply raised “more questions” with figures that are different from those furnished previously, Roberti said. He also questioned why the district was unable to give a full accounting for its deficit during its communications with the state analyst in November and December.

“Why the detailed report now?” he asked. “Why wasn’t it available earlier? Was the intent to keep the legislative analyst in the dark?”

Thompson denied the district had anything to hide.

“The legislative analyst’s office has every right to come in and ask questions--we’re not questioning that,” Thompson said. But he and district finance officials said the state agency did not explicitly request an accounting of the $400-million shortfall, which was based on revenue and expenditure projections last spring that officials say had to constantly be adjusted during the budget process.

To help bridge the budget gap, the district cut the salaries of its 58,000 employees to save $178 million. All but the 32,000-member teachers union have agreed to the pay reductions, and the new questions concerning the district’s finances are likely to complicate contract talks with United Teachers-Los Angeles, scheduled to resume next week.

“If they want to avoid a teachers strike, they ought to be able to explain where every penny is, and that list (of budget figures) does not convince me of anything, because it’s so general and broad,” said UTLA President Helen Bernstein. “For me, the figures don’t add up and they continue not to add up.”

According to the list released Tuesday, the district projected last spring that it would fall $400 million short because of several spending commitments it could not avoid, including the restoration of onetime cuts made the previous year and the need to repay insurance and reserve funds tapped to cover last year’s $404-million shortfall.

District Budget Director Henry Jones said the legislative analyst’s accounting failed to consider almost $100 million in projected increases in the district’s contributions to Medicare, workers’ compensation and other benefits programs, its deferred maintenance program and its state-mandated reserve fund.

The state review also underestimated by $21 million the amount the district set aside to cover increases in enrollment and miscalculated the amount needed to temporarily repay last year’s salary cuts and cover inflationary increases in operating expenses, the district report said.