EDITORIAL PASSING THE BUCK HAHN'S CARPING AT SACRAMENTO IS JUST A RED HERRING.

DISHONESTY may not be the best policy in life, but it seems to be gainfully employed by Mayor James Hahn when it comes to the city's budget problems.

All along, Hahn has maintained that L.A.'s entire fiscal mess is the fault of the state's sticky fingers.

``Sacramento keeps taking our money,'' Hahn lamented Wednesday. ``We could balance our budget just fine if we can hold on to the revenues that historically belong to local government.''

As such, Hahn is a leader of the pack in pushing to get the Local Taxpayers and Public Safety Protection Act on the November ballot. The initiative would prevent state budget-makers from taking local property tax money to solve their own budget problems by requiring voter approval of any revenue shifts.

Granted, Sacramento's raids on local funding have made life difficult for California's cities and counties. For the city of Los Angeles, it could mean a loss of $100 million in the next budget year; it could cost the county as much as $459 million.

But to pin all the blame for the city's largely self-inflicted budget woes on the state is disingenuous at best, a flat out lie at worst.

In fact, were it not for the wasteful spending and the pandering to employee unions in the form of generous raises during an economic downturn, that $100 million would have been easily absorbed in a $5.1 billion budget.

To get a sense of perspective, Los Angeles faces a revenue shortfall of about $300 million next year, which is why it's looking at raising fees, firing employees, cutting whole departments and reducing basic city services. But Sacramento's cuts only total one third of that sum, meaning that most of that shortfall is directly connected to city leadership's bad financial choices.

Yes, it hurts to lose state money, but even if Sacramento delivered on all its promises, L.A. would still be in a financial mess. Before blaming the state, Hahn ought to first get City Hall's house in order.

And there's no doing that until he's willing to start telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth about matters fiscal.