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LA Kings are inThe City Council ended a long day of negotiating by passing a $6.7 billion city budget for next fiscal year. The precariously balanced budget raises fees and reduces services, adds $5 to parking fines, proposes a billboard tax, and keeps the pressure on unions to accept concessions or face up to 26 furlough days and as many as 761 layoffs. Another 1,000 layoffs could be necessary in October if new revenue sources, such as the mayor's plan to lease out parking garages, don't come through or if the unions don't agree to cuts.
As often happens, the main media sources following the council don't totally agree on what happened. David Zahniser and Phil Willon in the L.A. Times say the crucial vote was 11-4. Rick Orlov at the Daily News calls it 13-1. City News Service avoids using any vote tally at all. Earlier in the day, Villaraigosa changed course and joined Councilman Herb Wesson in seeking a delay in voting on the budget — with the layoffs he had called necessary — to allow union negotiations to go forth. The council rejected Villaraigosa's call and passed the budget anyway. From the LAT:
That request baffled some council members, who thought that the mayor had been seeking to trim the workforce."I can't understand what mayor we're talking to sometimes," said Councilman Greig Smith. "One day he says, 'Let's do it.' The next day he says, 'Let's not do it.' " Garcetti said the vote would help Villaraigosa with his negotiations. "We saw last year that when we all delayed, we paid the price," he added.
Although the council brushed aside the mayor's request, Villaraigosa's deputy chief of staff, Matt Szabo, predicted that the mayor and the council would "end up at the same place."