As the City Council delayed a decision on making layoffs and eliminating city departments to balance the deficit, some council members began talking Wednesday about proposing new taxes to help ease the city's budget woes.
Councilman Bill Rosendahl suggested placing a parcel tax for an undetermined amount on the November ballot to generate more revenue, in part to help pay for the city's ballooning pension costs. Councilwoman Janice Hahn said she wanted to consider submitting a variety of potential tax increases to voters.
"We need two or three proposals, relating to the pension and new revenue, and need to have a conversation with voters," Rosendahl said. "We need to let the people weigh in and see if they want us to continue bailing out the pension system at the expense of services."
Rosendahl said the tax could be tied to specific services, such as police, fire or sanitation.
Council President Eric Garcetti proposed the council hold a special meeting on Monday to discuss ways the council can find new revenue.
If formally proposed, a new tax is likely to meet with opposition from taxpayer groups and local activists.
Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, said he would oppose the tax. He noted that city voters approved an increase in trash fees four years ago to help expand the Los Angeles Police Department, yet even that agency may be subject to potential cuts now.
"The bad decisions the city has made relative to its pensions in the past are coming home to roost," Coupal said. "There is no way, in our view, the taxpayers would be treated fairly by a parcel tax. They are highly regressive and at a time of tremendous stress for taxpayers is absolutely a bad idea. The city has an abject lack of discipline when it comes to spending."
A parcel tax would require two-thirds voter approval. The last parcel tax, proposed by Hahn, was for $36 a year per parcel and would have brought in $30 million a year. Voters narrowly rejected it in 2008.
City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana said his office was researching a proposal that could bring in as much as $50 million a year, but no exact amount has been determined.
The discussion on taxes came as part of the council's larger debate about balancing the current year's budget, facing a deficit of more than $200 million by the end of June, and up to $400 million by the end of the next fiscal year.
The council debated for six hours, with hundreds of city employees showing up to express their anger about potential layoffs.
Some 'tough decisions'
The plan before the council now calls for up to 1,500 layoffs and eliminating several city agencies. Council members said they wanted to delay any decision on layoffs for at least 30 days while the proposal is further studied.
"I know we can do this," City Council President Eric Garcetti said at one point. "We have made tough decisions before and we can do it again."
Several hundred speakers testified, in the third day of budget reviews this week. Many arrived in wheelchairs or holding white canes to oppose cutting the Department of Disability. Others wore costumes - one dressed as an angel - to plead their case.
But at Garcetti's urging, the council agreed to require the city Personnel Department to find vacant jobs in the proprietary departments, Airports, Harbor and Water and Power, to fill vacancies from the city's early retirement program. Officials estimate about 1,000 workers from those departments are retiring. Employees facing layoffs could instead transfer to those vacant jobs. The Personnel Department would also look to find vacant positions in other departments that could be filled with employees who would otherwise be laid off.
"My goal is we find jobs for every one of our city employees," Councilwoman Janice Hahn said. "We should have a match.com for jobs in the city."
The council delayed plans to eliminate any agencies, including Neighborhood Empowerment and Environmental Affairs, until further studies are made. Environmental Affairs has 95 percent of its budget covered by grants, officials said.
Villaraigosa opposed to cuts
Included in the package of motions approved on Wednesday, the City Council said it wanted to create separate working groups to look at efficiencies in the Los Angeles police and fire departments.
Santana presented a report that outlined major potential cuts in all city agencies, including the LAPD and LAFD - calling for eliminating at least 600 new police hires.
Parks said he believed the city needed to look at the sworn services to share in the pain the city is suffering.
The most recent figures show the LAPD is at 9,947 officers while the LAFD has about 3,400 firefighters out of a total work force of just under 40,000.
But, Parks said, the two departments take up 70 percent of the general fund's discretionary spending of nearly $3 billion. Santana said that leaves about $1 billion to pay for other city programs.
Santana had not originally recommended the public safety agencies for any reduction in their sworn account - with Villaraigosa continuing to stress he would oppose any cuts. The new report was made at the request of council members.
Alarcon said the city also should discontinue plans to increase the lifeline rate the DWP and Sanitation charges to more than 58,000 seniors and the poor.
"This absolutely is the wrong time to raise rates on these people," Alarcon said. "These are the people who can least afford it."Councilman Greig Smith, however, argued the city provides more support already for the lifeline than other cities do for similar programs, at a time when the DWP is reducing its transfer to the general fund.
Parks said the city cannot afford to continue the program and urged the city to cap new applications.
Councilman Tony Cardenas said all city officials should share the blame for the budget problems.
"We should have been working on this for years," Cardenas said. "The ball was dropped by all of us."
