CITY LEADERS STUMP IN SACRAMENTO HAHN SEEKS FUNDS THAT WOULD DISAPPEAR UNDER BUDGET.

Byline: Harrison Sheppard Sacramento Bureau

SACRAMENTO - Los Angeles city government was transplanted to Sacramento for a day Tuesday, as Mayor James Hahn and most of the City Council and top bureaucrats lobbied state officials to protect more than $1 billion in local government funds slated for cuts.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed taking the money away from cities and counties to help balance a $15 billion deficit next year. The move followed his decision to restore local funds from the vehicle license fee, only to take much of it away out of another pocket - property taxes.

The proposed cuts would mean a loss of at least $50 million to the city, on top of hundreds of millions more the city has lost because of prior cuts in recent years.

``We just want our money back,'' Hahn said. ``We don't care what decisions they make up here in Sacramento - what programs they think they need to trim back, what wasteful spending they want to reduce or what revenues they want to seek. The decision is theirs.

``But what we want to say is one option has to be taken off the table from now on: we can't keep coming back to local government every time we have a problem.''

Twelve council members and Hahn fanned out across the Capitol, meeting with every legislator they could, but particularly concentrating on those from the Los Angeles area.

By the end of the day, they had no dollars or promises but said they felt generally satisfied they had gotten their message across.

They also met with officials from the League of California Cities, which is working on an initiative to guarantee funds for cities and counties.

The delegation included two who knew the town particularly well: former Assemblyman Tony Cardenas and former Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa. Conversely, two of their former council colleagues have made the transition from City Hall to Sacramento: Assembly members Jackie Goldberg and Mark Ridley-Thomas, although Ridley-Thomas was not on the official schedule of visits.

The delegation also included several top administrators, such as Chief Legislative Analyst Ron Deaton, City Administrative Officer Bill Fujioka, and the city's Sacramento-based lobbying staff.

They scheduled meetings with more than two dozen legislators, plus members of the governor's staff, culminating with a reception hosted by Assembly Speaker-elect Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles.

``Nobody pulled out their wallets in these meetings ... but we'll keep trying,'' said Councilman Jack Weiss. ``I think these efforts will continue. I think it's a useful show of unanimity. We're the largest city in the state, so it's good we're speaking with one voice.''

Schwarzenegger himself did not meet with the group, but Hahn said he was not disappointed because he keeps in contact with the governor - for example, speaking to him about this issue by telephone last week.

Typical of the group's reception was the meeting between Assemblyman Keith Richman, R-Granada Hills, and council members Wendy Greuel, Dennis Zine and Greig Smith.

Richman told them he opposed the local government cuts and is looking for alternatives, but didn't have any specific options to offer at this point.

Richman serves as co-chairman of a group of a dozen moderate legislators from both parties who push for compromise and achievement over ideology. He said they have been looking at possibilities.

``We have literally hundreds of things we're looking at as proposed alternatives to those that were put forth by the governor,'' Richman told the council members.

``We're working on this. The governor proposed a budget that is a good starting point. Now it's our responsibility to do the hard work and go through every line item of the budget and determine what we think other good alternatives are.''

Zine said he sensed a generally better, more cooperative attitude in Sacramento now, noting that ``we were up here a few months ago and it was really gloomy. We didn't get a lot of good vibes.''

Harrison Sheppard, [phone]

harrison.sheppard(at)dailynews.com