An Ugly Job, but New Mayor Will Have to Cut Services

The clash of ideas that has emerged in a multitude of debates is giving us a clearer picture of how the candidates for mayor feel about raising taxes.

It’s about time. Financing the city government is the most important job facing the new mayor. In fact, it is one of the few problems that falls completely into the mayor’s lap.

While the candidates talk about crime, illegal immigration, business failure and society’s other vast dilemmas, the mayor alone is not going to solve them.

But the mayor, and only the mayor, writes the budget. Although the mayor is limited in many ways, when it comes to fiscal matters the city’s chief executive is as powerful as the President or governor. This is one case where the buck really does stop at the mayor’s desk.

The situation awaiting the arrival of the new mayor gets worse every day. That’s clear from the gloomy reports being compiled by Chairman Zev Yaroslavsky, City Controller Rick Tuttle and the other members of a special committee on L.A.’s fiscal crisis:

Despite a tax increase this year, the recession has cut into tax receipts so badly that municipal income is $37 million less than expected. Continued low tax collections, plus a huge projected cut in state aid will drive the city into a deficit of between $350 million and $550 million next year.

With this impending crisis in mind, moderator Bill Rosendahl of Century Cable steered last Tuesday night’s debate into the muddy fiscal waters. This debate, one of many that have served as the focus of the mayoral campaign so far, took place at the annual meeting of the Tarzana Homeowners Assn. at El Cabellero Country Club in the San Fernando Valley.

As the debate proceeded , I mentally divided the candidates into Clintons and Bushes.

It could have been George Bush up there when Republican Richard Riordan, an attorney entrepreneur, boomed: “I will make a pledge of no new taxes.” Business, he said, has been taxed enough.

Democratic Councilman Mike Woo sounded like Bill Clinton when he said: “You will not hear me say ‘read my lips, no new taxes.’ . . . The next few years may be tortuous.”

That brought another Bush type into the fray. “Mr. Woo, read my lips, no new taxes,” said Nick Patsaouras, a transit board member who owns an engineering company.

Woo interrupted him by raising the specter of Bush’s unfortunate promise and subsequent defeat: “The last time we heard that,” he said, “it didn’t turn out that well.”

“Because there wasn’t the will,” said Patsaouras.

There were variations on the theme, testimony to the powerful influence the 1992 presidential campaign, with its focus on domestic issues, has had on political debate.

Attorney Tom Houston brought back memories of ascetic Jerry Brown, proposing a tax on restaurant meals of more than $50 and hotel bills of more than $60 to finance a special fund for the homeless. Former school board member Julian Nava was reminiscent of Sen. Tom Harkin, the most liberal of last year’s Democratic presidential contenders. He called for a tax on the incomes of out-of-city commuters working in L.A. The idea brought shouts of “Oh no, no, no” from the crowd.

I imagine many others will shout “no, no, no,” especially in view of the increased federal taxes Americans will be paying if President Clinton’s program is approved.

But it’s true that the city has just about run out of sources for new taxes. Proposition 13 limited municipal taxing powers.

Despite those limits, fees and taxes were boosted $40 million last year. The rubbish collection fee could be extended to single-family homes, which would be a big moneymaker, but Yaroslavsky won’t stand for that. Taxes could be imposed on entertainment tickets and cable TV, but these measures would bring in only part of the money the city needs to balance the budget.

Several candidates had ideas about cutting spending. This is when the debate began to echo Ross Perot.

Councilman Joel Wachs has called for trimming 15% from the funds allocated for rebuilding the sewer system and cleaning up Santa Monica Bay. Assemblyman Richard Katz said private enterprise could turn Los Angeles International Airport into more of a profitable institution for the city. Riordan favored private companies bidding for rubbish collection routes. Councilman Ernani Bernardi wants to dismantle the Community Redevelopment Agency.

So the new mayor’s biggest job will be deciding where to cut city government. As Perot said, it won’t be pretty.

Bill Boyarsky’s column will now appear Sundays on B1 and Wednesdays on B2.