L.A. mayor proposes deepest city cuts in decades

Source: Reuters

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – After weeks of budget strife that eroded the city's credit rating and sparked talk of insolvency, Los Angeles' mayor on Tuesday unveiled a plan to close a $485 million deficit with the city's most drastic downsizing in three decades.

The plan would fill the bulk of the shortfall projected for the fiscal year that starts in July with a mix of across-the-board job cuts, sweeping furloughs and revenue collections expected to slightly exceed earlier forecasts.

The budget crisis facing America's second-largest city has been attributed to plunging tax revenues blamed on the region's sagging economy, sinking property values, a wave of mortgage foreclosures and double-digit unemployment.

Earlier this month, Wall Street's top credit agency downgraded the city's bond ratings and the city comptroller warned that Los Angeles risked running out of cash.

"This is a tough time for everyone right now in Los Angeles," Villaraigosa said in his annual state-of-the-city address before formally presenting the most austere budget proposal of his nearly five years in office. "We are experiencing an historic economic collapse."

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100421/us_nm/us_economy_losangeles_budget

I see the last name, but not until the fifth paragraph of the story.

What's all the fuss in California, anyway? all you have to do is cut waste. Ask any politician, especially a Republican.

I suppose the Reuters assumed people would know already considering that news reports on LA's severe financial woes are being covered numerously.

We have crooks and nincompoops, too.

Is he still going with the lady he left his seriously ill wife for ~?

:rofl: