Don't let the pols define LA's budget debate
As a long-time analyst of the City of LA budget, community activist, former city employee and union officer, and now a private planning consultant, a few thoughts on the current chapter of the perennial city budget crisis in Los Angeles (as well as the LAUSD,MTA, and Community College District). 1) It is critical to never let the City Hall pols define the budget debate since it means they will limit it to alternative strategies for gouging employees, and by direct extension LA residents. In their shuttered universe their only choices are whether to cut employees and public services and infrastructure from the bottom or the top. 2) The pols' most basic argument is "there is just no money," and it is bogus to the core. It needs to be rigorously exposed as a lie since the pols hidden agenda is their skewed priorities, for which employees and residents rank extremely low. 3) The critical rebuttal points to the pols’ "no money" arguments need to be repeatedly raised: