Hayden Unveils Economic Recovery Plan

Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan plans to unveil a plan this morning to “make L.A. the premier 21st century economy in the world” if he is reelected to a second term, a top aide said Tuesday.

In his annual speech on the state of the local economy, the businessman-turned-mayor will point to the success of his “Hollywood renaissance” and outline specific incentive programs to bring jobs to the poorest areas of the city and train underprivileged youths for jobs in the burgeoning multimedia industry, according to Deputy Mayor Gary Mendoza.

“We want all Angelenos to share in the prosperity,” Mendoza said in an interview Tuesday, promising targeted attention to South-Central Los Angeles, East Los Angeles and Pacoima. “The mayor has turned L.A. around. If you want to see that continue, give him four more years.”

Stealing a march on Riordan’s scheduled speech at Town Hall-Los Angeles, state Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles) released his own economic platform late Tuesday, focusing on small, minority-owned businesses as the key to revitalizing neighborhoods.

Hayden, who is challenging Riordan in the April 8 election, cited an 11% increase in local business failures last year and an unprecedented 53,865 personal bankruptcy filings in the city to contradict Riordan’s rosy statistics on rising employment, falling vacancy rates and increases in international trade, city business licenses and retail sales.

“The future of Los Angeles and its economy cannot be seen in the rearview mirror of those at the wheel of power,” says an 11-page draft of Hayden’s economic platform. “Improved race relations are the basis of improved commercial relationships. Improve the living conditions of immigrant workers. Build up the Latino and Asian professional, business and academic classes as intellectual links.”

Hayden suggests a battery of specific actions:

* Lower taxes for small businesses while stepping up audits to seek payment from the 40% of businesses whose taxes are delinquent. Eliminate permit fees for start-up firms, and the second-year fee for those that fail to make a profit.

* Increase loans by the Community Development Bank.

* Revive Rebuild L.A., the post-riot agency that disbanded last year.

* Pass a $250-million bond measure for multimedia learning centers in public schools. Speed up the promised investment of $300 million to $400 million in park-bond money intended to create environmental restoration jobs for at-risk youths.

* Create a task force on education and partnerships with community colleges, as well as a “research triangle” around universities.

* Increase incentives for telecommuting and expand Internet access to government information.

* Fight price increases in utilities and health care costs by threatening to cancel the city’s contract with Chevron, employing consumer advocates in the mayor’s office, opposing water and power rate increases and refusing to lower taxes for health maintenance organizations unless they commit to health care reforms.

* Reduce the influence of special interests by banning campaign contributions by Metropolitan Transportation Authority contractors to the agency’s board members, and by restricting contributions from city contractors to local politicians.

“We need investments in our city’s future instead of the unproductive paper transactions typical of a merger-mania economy,” Hayden wrote in the platform. “In the most basic terms, more and more people will be working longer hours for less reward, and paying higher taxes and fees for less services as long as City Hall is controlled by Richard Riordan’s business friends.”

Mendoza and Steve Sugerman, another deputy to the mayor, refused Tuesday to release a draft of the mayor’s speech or discuss the proposals he plans to make today. But they did offer a glossy new brochure the city spent $5,000 producing that highlights what they call an economic about-face.

According to the pamphlet, employment in Los Angeles County was up 2.3% in 1996 from the previous year, while the city’s retail sales in the first three quarters of 1996 rose 3.15% over the same period last year. Tonnage at the Los Angeles-Long Beach ports jumped 13.4% from 1993 to 1995, and the city’s overall value of international trade is tops in the country, at $155 billion, the brochure says.

“It’s nice, because lots of statistics are going up,” said City Administrative Officer Keith Comrie, whose office produced the first-of-its-kind report. “We wouldn’t be printing it if everything was going down.”

In an interview, Mendoza and Sugerman emphasized the revitalization of Hollywood filmmaking, Los Angeles’ signature industry.

Since the consolidation of the city and county’s film offices two years ago, the number of days for which film permits have been issued have skyrocketed 65%. Meanwhile, Capitol Records, Panavision and Paramount Pictures have all launched expansions, and stepped up police patrols on Hollywood Boulevard have reduced crime in the famous district.

“For a long time, Los Angeles was the enemy of the film industry,” Mendoza said. The mayor “changed the attitude 180 degrees, and the industry has responded--not just by what they’ve been saying but by what they’ve been doing.”

If reelected, the mayor will prioritize the entertainment, ultimedia and fashion industries during the next four years, officials said, while trying to build a strong “fiber-optic infrastructure” and keep Los Angeles as the nation’s premier gateway to international commerce.

The multimedia industry provides crucial opportunities, Mendoza and Sugerman said. The mayor has worked to reduce taxes on these companies to help lure them to Los Angeles. Next, he plans to launch partnerships with private firms to train inner-city youths for these high-paying jobs.

“Right now, the multimedia industry is crying out for talent,” Mendoza said. “In many cases, they’re going overseas, and these are jobs that pay $50,000 a year. You could take a kid who has a lot of talent . . . and say, ‘Here’s the door to the middle class.’ If you have creative talent, you can learn the technical skills.”