L.A.’s Work in Creating Jobs Pays Dividends

For too long, L.A. businesses have been stolen from us by other cities and states. The result has been a calamitous decline in both jobs and tax revenues in our city, causing huge strains on our budget and endangering our ability to provide basic city services. For example, since 1986, an astonishing 100 auto dealers […]

Let’s Permanently Extend LA’s 3-Year Tax Holiday for New Businesses

With unemployment in California hovering at 12 percent and with Washington in a stalemate on job-creation measures, the City of Los Angeles has been stepping up its efforts to put people back to work. We are pursuing a five-part strategy to create jobs. We are: (1) reforming LA’s business tax; (2) reducing red tape; (3) […]

Not Waiting for Washington: 5 Steps We’re Taking to Create Jobs in LA

Congress is failing to take action on jobs. But my administration is not waiting for Washington: we are taking five steps right now to put people back to work. Step #1: We are working to reform LA’s business tax. To attract new businesses into Los Angeles, my office worked with the City Council to institute […]

State Government – As It Should Be

Year in and year out, it seems like our state faces the same predicament: An historic deficit; a deadlocked legislature; budget negotiations hijacked by a few hard-liners making unreasonable demands, and stalled by a two-thirds rule that impedes progress and weakens our ability to govern.

A few weeks ago – after the defeat of a series of measures designed to soften the blow of our budget shortfall – a coalition of mayors and city officials came together to call on our state representatives to follow a different path; to take responsibility for the public purse; to find a better way to navigate the choppy economic waters before us and lay the foundation for a stronger, more stable financial future.

Yesterday, we went back to our state capital to reiterate that same message – not as another special interest group and not to complain about circumstances, shrinking revenues, and a recession beyond our control. We returned to Sacramento as productive partners and concerned colleagues; as public servants ready to work together and offer viable solutions that ensure our financial stability and chart a course toward more responsible fiscal stewardship.