Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa wants a plan to be drawn up to shut the city down for two days a week beginning April 12 because of their budget crisis.
"There are no easy decisions or simple ways to solve this budget crisis,” Mayor Villaraigosa said in a statement. “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."
Villaraigosa said he hoped a plan could quickly be developed so they could calculate how much money it would save the city while they hold emergency meetings to try and figure out how to replenish the city's general fund.
"We can no longer wait. We can no longer keep saying no," Villaraigosa said. "We must act now."
J Powell says "Stop giving your city and state away to the illeagles."
I sympathize with him.
That is what my Spanish and Mexican ancestors probably thought when Calif. and the rest of the Southwest were being overrun by gold rushers and land speculators and "illegals" from the eastern and midwest U.S.
Yes, this "land is my land" stuff is cyclical, friendo.
If liberalism is responsible for the LA mess, isn't conservatism responsible for the mess the whole country is in today? Remember the state of the nation when Bush left the white house?
Russ, that door to door thing was already tried.
Germany 1940s.
Maybe if the city didn't foot the bill for Michael Jackson's funeral we wouldn't be in such a crisis.
Our leadership has failed us ! yes they have in many ways . but look with in your self , we have also failed to limit our selfs to live with in our means we forgot about the country and our core values as a whole and now we're looking for ways to point the finger .in the process we have lost our unity . WELL LET ME REMIND YOU OF A LITTLE SOMETHING !
ASK NOT WHAT YOUR COUNTRY CAN DO FOR YOU- ASK WHAT YOU CAN DO FOR YOUR COUNTRY !!!!
It's time to start a new beginning and write the new chapter of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA -- TOGETHER!!!!!! as ONE FOR ALL
Maybe this will give the union members and organizers more time to attend meeting to figure out how to benefit from the budget shortfalls they are primarily responsible for. The never ending escalating payscale and outrageous current and post retirement benefits clearly need to be re evaluated (across the board). It's amazing how the Mayor began his career negotating for the unions and now he has found a way to minimize them, even if temporarily.
Thanks Bill and I agree. People need to read their history or should I say economic history of California and they will find that it all stems all the way back to 1978.
1) Proposition 13, which cut property-tax rates 57% and forced the state to rely more heavily on income tax revenue.
2) When Californians were wealthy, the tactic generated a surplus, enabling politicians to cut taxes, pad budgets and bask in their popularity. But when times were lean, the state struggled to pay its bills.
3) California's system of governance seems designed to thwart any solution its lawmakers propose. With a two-thirds majority required to raise taxes or pass a budget, 40% of public funds earmarked for public schools and no method of overriding voter initiatives, California seems stymied by a complex puzzle that no one can solve.
How about make the Jackson family pay for that expensive funeral? And maybe you call the cops off a bit so they'll stop trying to get the money by draining it out of middle class working people via asinine traffic "voilations".
Why dont you fire1/3 of the useless people and cut salary by 1/3 of rest of minorly useful people and cut pensions back to levels the rest of us pesants have. Then we are talking.
Stop the illegals from comming in, I have a co-pay of $50.00 when I go to E.R. plus prescriptions and a deductable . Illegals pay nada. They know that the E.R. will not turn them away from a public hospital. We need ID's for everyone . It's too bad that some of the California residents have it worst than some of the illegals. And I am of Mexican descent and a Vietnam Era Veteran. Send the illegals back and save tons of money by not paying for their medical expenses.
Nice plan. NOT.
stop paying for all the illegals and maybe california will improve.
Maybe it would be easier if he cut his wage as leader of the city thus setting an example. Next in line. Take away all pay raises, and increases in pension funds for the retired that have been given to all city employees over the last 15 years.
To Envy (comment #7)... Uh, no, this wouldn't doesn't mean shutting down independent businesses. Lmao. The three-day work week he's proposing would apply to all city agencies, except for police and other public safety and revenue-generating departments.
I agree with someone who said "why not just ask Obama to print more money" I really don't see what the problem is. That's how we run the rest of the country.
Someone else said that we should raise taxes. If you were a real American and knew how this country came to be which I'm sure you don't, you wouldn't dare say that.
I pay over $6,000 a year in property tax in Los Angeles. I have no idea why you said they were frozen because that's just false. So we should pay more taxes so it flushed right down the toilet with the rest of it eh? Good thinking...
How about we break the two party dictatorship in this country and actually have some real change. Not Madison Ave. BS Slogan "Change" that most bought into but actual change?