{"id":463008,"date":"2010-03-23T14:24:35","date_gmt":"2010-03-23T18:24:35","guid":{"rendered":"tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c630a53ef0120a96a8202970b"},"modified":"2010-03-23T14:57:48","modified_gmt":"2010-03-23T18:57:48","slug":"villaraigosa-warns-of-bankruptcy-if-l-a-city-council-blocks-electricity-rate-hike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/463008","title":{"rendered":"Villaraigosa warns of bankruptcy if L.A. City Council blocks electricity rate hike"},"content":{"rendered":"

Facing resistance from the City Council over his renewable-energy plans, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has warned that any attempt to overturn higher electricity rates <\/a>approved last week by the Department of Water and Power board would throw the city\u2019s finances into disarray, causing it to run out of money in the next four months.<\/p>\n

In a briefing paper sent to council members Monday night, Villaraigosa\u2019s office said the DWP would renege on a promise to transfer $73 million to the city\u2019s general fund budget if its rate proposal <\/a>is rejected.<\/p>\n

Such a move would cause the general fund, which pays for public safety, libraries and other basic services, to \u201crun out of cash\u201d before the end of the fiscal year on June 30, Villaraigosa\u2019s briefing paper said.<\/p>\n

\u201cCouncil rejection of the DWP board\u2019s action [to increase rates] would be the most immediate and direct route to bankruptcy the city could pursue,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n

The council is scheduled to decide on Tuesday whether to conduct its own review of the DWP increase. Villaraigosa\u2019s appointees on the DWP board voted last week to approve the first of four rate hikes<\/a> between now and April 2011.<\/p>\n

Once all four increases are in place, households across the city will see electricity cost increases ranging from 9% to 28%, depending on where they live and how much power they consume. Businesses would experience increases in their bills of 21% to 22%, according to the utility.<\/p>\n

Councilman Herb Wesson criticized Villaraigosa for using the possibility of bankruptcy to build support for his plan for installing solar panels. \u201cI don\u2019t think you hold people hostage that way,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The DWP was scheduled to provide at least $220 million to the general fund for the 2009-10 fiscal year. So far, however, the utility has\u00a0sent only a portion of that money.<\/p>\n

Last week, DWP Interim General Manager S. David Freeman warned that the utility would think twice about sending the rest of the money to the city\u2019s budget accounts if the rate hikes are rejected. At the same time, Freeman said that if the hikes were approved, his agency would come up with an extra $20 million in budget contributions by reducing its travel costs and other expenditures.<\/p>\n

Once all of the rate hikes are in place, the city budget would see an additional $38.4 million per year, the mayor\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n

Without the planned increases, the general fund would lose out on $93 million and have trouble paying its bills, Villaraigosa warned council members.<\/p>\n

\u201cFailure to meet basic obligations would send the city into a financial tailspin, leading to further downgrades and an inability to borrow to meet future financial obligations,\u201d his report said.<\/p>\n

— David Zahniser at Los Angeles City Hall<\/p>\n

More breaking news in L.A. Now:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Authorities received reports about 2-year-old
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LAPD shooting of autistic man demands policy
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7 injured in multi-vehicle crash on Highway
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Fate of Newport Beach city official accused of
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Motorcyclist killed on Interstate 10 in
\nAlhambra<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Facing resistance from the City Council over his renewable-energy plans, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has warned that any attempt to overturn higher electricity rates approved last week by the Department of Water and Power board would throw the city\u2019s finances into disarray, causing it to run out of money in the next four months. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4678,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-463008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4678"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=463008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463008\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}