In the most honest and straight forward budget presentation in the last ten years, Mayor Eric Garcetti presented his “Back to Basics” budget at a Monday morning press conference at City Hall. This $5.1 billion General Fund budget is $250 million greater than last year’s Adopted Budget, representing a 5% increase. Garcetti’s budget focuses on […]

Everybody agrees that our failing streets and broken sidewalks need to be repaired. However, there is a difference of opinion about how to finance the $4.5 billion street and sidewalk repair program that was developed by Miguel Santana, (see photo) the City Administrative Officer, and Gerry Miller, the Chief Legislative Analyst, in their March 17 […]

“A Time for Truth,” the January report issued by Mickey Kantor’s LA 2020 Commission, indicated the City was shortchanging its two underfunded pension plans by at least $400 million a year because of its reliance on the overly optimistic investment rate assumption of 7.75%. But this $400 million that financial wizards at City Hall have […]

Eric Garcetti is considering a proposal to phase out the $470 million Gross Receipts Business Tax to stimulate the City’s economy and create jobs. Unfortunately, our cash strapped City cannot afford to forego $30 million in revenue next year as this unilateral phase out without any offsetting revenue will increase the budget deficit to $280 […]

The last thing that the professional politicians on the City Council wanted to discuss on Friday was the City’s dismal finances that were outlined in “A Time for Truth,” the “lacerating” report that was a “stark reality check” on the City’s finances and economy that was issued by The Los Angeles 2020 Commission headed by […]

Mayor Eric Garcetti and the Herb Wesson led City Council of Los Angeles have refused the recognize the severity of the City’s almost $10 billion unfunded pension liability and the impact it will have on the City’s ability to provide core services such as public safety and well maintained streets and sidewalks. As of June […]

Despite record revenues that are expected to exceed $5 billion, the City Council is considering a $4.5 billion tax increase over the next 30 years to fund the repair of our lunar cratered streets because of its inability to control ever escalating salaries, benefits, and pension contributions. But the failure of the City Council to […]

On October 15, San Jose’s Democratic Mayor Chuck Reed and four other mayors* submitted a statewide ballot initiative, The Pension Reform Act of 2014, to California Attorney General Kamala Harris for her review in anticipation of the collection of over 800,000 signatures needed to place this measure on the November 2014 ballot. If the Pension […]

The Port of Los Angeles is a major economic component of the Southern California economy, responsible, along with Port of Long Beach, for economic activity that supports over 900,000 jobs.  However, the Port has run into strong headwinds as the volume of imported containers has slipped 6% over the last twelve months. Even exports of […]

The Alameda Corridor is a well-managed public private partnership between the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and the Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroads that has resulted in massive transportation efficiencies and savings.  At the same time, countless backups at surface street railroad crossings have been eliminated and truck traffic on […]