The Race to the Bottom in Los Angeles
The Los Angeles Times (March 1, 2010), Southern California’s rapidly shrinking, former newspaper of record, complains that Los Angeles’s elected officials, primarily Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the 15 members of the LA City Council, do not have a plan to guide them in their massive, highly selective cutbacks in municipal services, layoffs of public employees, and increases in fees for city services. It is too bad that the editorial staff of the LA Times has not bothered to read its own newspaper. If they had, they would know that LA’s elected officials have two plans before them, and they are carefully following one of them. They would also know that similar plans are also being implemented at the LAUSD, not far down the street from City Hall. Its budget is as large as the city’s, and its budget deficit is even larger ($600 million vs. $450 million). Likewise, LA’s regional transit agency, the Metropolitan Transit Authority, and the Los Angeles Community College District, are