City officials have endured particularly unpleasant conversations with unions, especially after Los Angeles officials announced Wednesday that layoffs within the government were “inevitable” to compensate for next year’s $1 billion budget deficit.
The city has achieved labor peace in the past few years by agreeing to raise wages for most workers, including the Los Angeles fire department. This is mainly due to inflationary pressures to “pay fair wages.”
But postponing the salary hike could be a $250 million obligation when the city ends up asking them to leave “no stones left” to cut costs by Mayor Karen Bass.
The city cannot return to the union and demand that some of the pay increases be delayed.
Szabo said one way to ensure employment decreases is to postpone salary increases as 80% of the city’s budget is spent on wages, benefits and pensions.
“It doesn’t look like we can cut without reducing the workforce,” Szabo said.
Many of the ones that come next to the city will not be well received, Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigoza said he hit many workers for months during the Great Recession in 2009, cutting services.
“I remember the picket in front of my house,” Villaraigosa said. “I remember Pickett, who prevented my kids from going to school, but bankruptcy wasn’t an option, so I had to do it.”
Villaraigoza, now a candidate for California governor, said the city needs to abandon regulations and bureaucracy to increase its economic activity.
“It’s too difficult to build here. It’s very difficult to invest in this town. That’s just a fact,” he said.
The costs of hiring employees and implementing services have increased, but the city’s revenues are primarily down as sales, business and hotel taxes are projected to drop significantly, and to more than $300 million.
The amount of checks the city is cutting in response to the lawsuit is also expected to leave a $300 million hole, Szabo said.
“People have been injured by the use of armed cases, employment lawsuits and disability infrastructure,” he explained.
Raising taxes can help the city’s budget, but that requires public votes. However, various urban service fees are expected to rise, including garbage collection.
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