L.A. mayor looks at shutting most city services twice a week (jeez louise)

[ensho]

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/04/06/california.budget.crisis/index.html


The mayor of Los Angeles, California, called Tuesday for a plan to shut down all city services -- except for public safety and revenue-generating positions -- twice a week beginning Monday in an effort to solve the city's budget crisis.

"There are no easy decisions or simple ways to solve this budget crisis," Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said. "But as the CEO of this great city, it is my responsibility to make these difficult, but necessary, decisions to steer the city out of this crisis and onto solid financial ground."

He said he was asking the city administrative officer to develop a plan to shut down the city for two days a week and calculate the money the city would save from the move.

"We can no longer wait. We can no longer keep saying no. We must act now," he said.

-snip-

Without the $73.5 million, City Controller Wendy Greuel said, the city's general fund will be negative $10 million on May 5.

She called the situation "the most urgent fiscal crisis" in the city's recent history. She urged the mayor to transfer $90 million from the city's reserve funds so that she could pay city employees and the city's bills.

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[Kievan Rus]

1. God forbid they raise taxes to keep services instead

[kestrel91316]

2. He has no authority to do this unilaterally AND there is no need because the city has the

funds to keep going as is for now, and tax receipts are increasing.

Villaraigosa is an idiot.

[PSPS]

3. Check LBN - this idea was scuttled yesterday

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4335899