{"id":510001,"date":"2010-04-03T10:52:46","date_gmt":"2010-04-03T14:52:46","guid":{"rendered":"tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c630a53ef01347f9d7179970c"},"modified":"2010-04-03T10:53:58","modified_gmt":"2010-04-03T14:53:58","slug":"despite-dire-budget-warnings-los-angeles-payroll-continued-to-grow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/510001","title":{"rendered":"Despite dire budget warnings, Los Angeles’ payroll continued to grow"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n\n
\n

\"\"<\/img><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

Threats this week by Los Angeles’ powerful municipal utility to
\nwithhold $73 million from the treasury helped reveal a city that has
\nbecome increasingly dependent on indirect and onetime sources of
\nrevenue to pay its bills.<\/p>\n

<\/br> Combined with the worst economic decline since the Depression,
\nthose dwindling sources of cash have forced city officials to confront
\na problem they have long tried to ignore — a steady growth of the city
\npayroll for the last decade.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nThe city’s core 35,000-member workforce increased by at least 3,000
\nbetween 2000 and 2009. During the same time, Los Angeles’ yearly
\npension contributions more than tripled to $723 million, fueled by
\ninvestment losses but also by the larger payroll.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br><\/p>\n

\nWhen the effects of the failing economy surfaced in late 2007, Mayor
\nAntonio Villaraigosa and the City Council approved significant raises
\nfor union workers and pressed ahead with a police force expansion even
\nas they talked openly of a need for cutbacks and threatened layoffs.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

<\/br>
\n"It’s a head-scratcher," said Jack Kyser, a Los Angeles County Economic
\nDevelopment Corp. economist. "If you know that tough times are coming,
\nyou should be ultra-cautious. You’ve had ongoing warnings about the
\nmagnitude of the downturn and they haven’t been listening."
<\/br>
\n
<\/br><\/p>\n

\nNow, the city’s $4.4-billion general fund — which pays for police,
\nlibraries, parks and other city services — has a $212-million budget
\ndeficit that could grow to $1 billion in four years without drastic
\ncuts. Publicly, city officials have blamed the steep drop in tax
\nrevenue, but concede that the payroll increases have played a major
\nrole as well.<\/p>\n

Read the full story here.<\/a><\/p>\n

–Phil Willon<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Threats this week by Los Angeles’ powerful municipal utility to withhold $73 million from the treasury helped reveal a city that has become increasingly dependent on indirect and onetime sources of revenue to pay its bills. Combined with the worst economic decline since the Depression, those dwindling sources of cash have forced city officials to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4131,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-510001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510001","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\/4131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=510001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510001\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}