Like it or not, time for City Hall to start chopping

Try as they might to make the budget deficit go away, members of the L.A. City Council must start to face reality (or at least City Hall's version of reality.) It's asking budget chief Miguel Santana to come up with ways in which the roughly $150 million shortfall can be made up. I say roughly because no one really knows what the deficit total is or might be by the time a final budget is considered (just a few months ago it was estimated at over $200 million). That makes the process especially difficult because the mayor and other city officials seem to have a rosier view of the deficit than is warranted - and they could balk at making the needed cuts. Already, Richard Alarcon is pushing back. Among the ideas being considered: Eliminating the LAPD's three- and four-day work week shifts, deferring employee raises, and dropping plans to eliminate the business tax. From the LAT:

Although the city's revenues are slowly increasing, expenditures continue to outpace them, creating continuing deficits, Santana told the council in a budget update. Rising pension costs, promised employee raises and healthcare cost increases are driving much of the structural deficit, he said. Councilman Richard Alarcon characterized Parks' proposal as an ambush made when union representatives and business leaders were not in chambers to debate them. "This is essentially a declaration of war on so many entities we have worked with to achieve unity," he said. He asked the council to delay a vote for at least a week. But that request failed and the 10 council members present voted 9 to 1 in favor of examining the proposals in more detail, with Alarcon casting the only "no" vote.