Politics & Government

City Budget Challenge Extended

The deadline for Playa del Rey and Del Rey residents to submit their input to the mayor's budget challenge has been postponed until Friday.

Do you have an idea about how the city should best spend its revenues? City officials have extended the deadline for submitting input on Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's Los Angeles Budget Challenge to Friday.

The online initiative allows members of the public to share their concerns about fiscal issues and offer suggestions about how the city might best spend its revenues.

Before you respond to the "challenge" by the mayor, you might want to consider some facts about L.A.’s economy and two recent commentaries in the media about a highly contentious issue regarding the way taxpayers’ money is being spent:

  • The city’s current operating budget for fiscal 2010-11 is $6.75 billion, according to figures available on the mayor’s official website. The city collects revenues from more than 20 different sources—nearly 65 percent of them from the General Fund, which includes property taxes (32 percent), business and sales taxes (16 percent), utility users’ taxes (15 percent) and taxes from licenses, permits, fees and fines (18 percent).
  • Out of every dollar in the city’s coffers, 44.3 cents are spent on community safety, including crime and fire control, and public assistance; 26.2 cents are spent on community maintenance, including sewage issues, planning and building enforcement, streets and parkways, and blight identification and elimination; 14.3 cents are spent on street and highway transportation, including traffic control; 6.7 cents are spent on cultural, educational and recreational services; 5.5 cents are spent on general administration and support, including administrative, legal and personnel services; 3 cents are spent on human resources, economic assistance and development.
  • The city employs some 34,000 people, including 13,964 sworn positions, and salaries for this work force make up about 85 percent of the budgets of various city departments.
  • Unemployment in Los Angeles County increased to 13 percent in December, from 12.8 percent in November, and was five decimal points higher than the unemployment rate across California, according to the latest figures available from the state Employment Development Department. December’s unemployment rate was five decimal points higher than the rate a year ago. (See the .pdf file in the photos section for further details.)
  • On Wednesday, Jan. 26, the City Council unanimously voted to spend $52 million from funds meant for the Community Redevelopment Agency, which Gov. Jerry Brown has said he will abolish this summer, on a parking garage at a downtown museum proposed by L.A. billionaire and philanthropist Eli Broad. In contrast, the City Council approved $5.5 million for development in the Watts neighborhood of L.A.
  • Broad's proposed museum in the L.A. Civic Center, which would house his foundation's art collection and offices, will get a parking garage, fancy plaza and glitzy sidewalks, all financed with Community Redevelopment Agency funds,” the LA Weekly reported Thursday, adding: “No word from L.A. redevelopment czar Christine Essel or Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on how this would fight neglect, poverty and blight.”
  • In his blog, Ron Kaye L.A.,  the former editor of the Los Angeles Daily News, wrote: “Like the $30 million gift of taxpayer money to bring Cirque du Soleil to the Kodak Theatre—part of a heavily subsidized project that is worth a third of the $600 million it cost—the Broad Museum, 37,000-square-foot plaza in front of it and the parking structure are what [City Council President Eric] Garcetti regards as ‘good development,’ proper uses of money skimmed from the general fund and schools and other core services for the purpose of replacing ‘blight’ with more beneficial uses.”

This article updates a previous version originally found on Marina del Rey Patch.

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