Budget swings leave Los Angeles dizzy

Credibility is strained as city job cut numbers go from 4,000 to 750.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Tuesday laid out his rescue plan for a city mired in its worst fiscal crisis in a generation — an austerity budget that would cut library hours, scale back pothole repairs, freeze the hiring of firefighters and shut the agency that oversees neighborhood councils.

But after weeks in which he and other city officials had warned that 3,000 to 4,000 city workers could lose their jobs to close a $485-million shortfall, the mayor's budget plan would target fewer than 750. Instead, the budget bets heavily that an economic upswing and the auctioning of city assets will help replenish the treasury.

The shift left members of the city workforce and some residents feeling whipsawed. Some questioned the credibility of the city's leadership, citing the gap between the current forecast and the dire recent predictions that Los Angeles was within a few weeks of running out of cash.

"When the information is that confusing and that contradictory, the public doesn't know what to believe — except to distrust anything they're told," said Mike Eveloff, an alternate on the Westside Neighborhood Council and president of the Tract 7260 Homeowners Assn.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-me-0421-la-budget-whiplash-20100421,0,249491.story