Richard Riordan

* Let me get this straight: Mayor-elect Richard Riordan actively opposed the April ballot initiative that would have put 1,000 more cops on the street because, he said, the extra $78 average per year it would have cost property taxpayers would make the city less competitive for business.

So, first thing after getting elected Riordan goes to Sacramento to beg Gov. Pete Wilson not to cut state money that comes to L.A. (June 11). Wilson, however, feels he has to take local government funds because, he says, raising state taxes to pay its own bills would make California less competitive for business. Instead, Wilson has agreed to a statewide ballot measure that would retain the half-cent sales tax.

Wilson and Riordan have already traveled to Washington asking for more federal dollars to come to California and L.A. They did this knowing that not one of their Republican cohorts in either the House or Senate has ever cast a single vote for President Clinton’s economic plan that would raise taxes--so that someday the federal government can pay its bills and respond to requests like theirs.

Both know that the way to win elections is to convince enough voters that they can have the good life at no cost. Neither Riordan nor Wilson lacks intelligence. What they do lack is the guts to level with their constituents about where the buck really starts.

BOB STONE

Los Angeles

* Riordan is finally confronting the fallacy of government as a business. Government is a service organization, closer to the Red Cross than General Motors. Granted there are many service businesses but the prices of their services are determined by management, not the customers. Let’s wish the new mayor good luck, for he is going to need lots of it. It’s not fun to be broke.

SYLVAN L. TOUR

Los Angeles