EDITORIAL SHOW US THE NUMBERS HAHN'S BUDGET WILL BE A TEST OF HIS LEADERSHIP.THE fun part about being mayor of Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. , as James Hahn For the Iowa politician, see . James Kenneth "Jim" Hahn (born July 3, 1950) is an American politician from the Democratic Party. He was the Deputy City Attorney (1975-1979), City Controller (1981-1985), City Attorney (1985-2001) and Mayor of Los Angeles, California well knows, is bestowing gifts on important constituencies in the form of public spending. And these days, Hahn is having lots of fun. It began in earnest with an announcement last week to increase funding for city parks by $7 million and libraries by $2 million. Since then, he's also talked up financing for the city's neighborhood councils Neighborhood councils are governmental or non-governmental bodies composed of local people who handle neighborhood problems. They can be found in many cities throughout the world. . And in the days to come, he's planning to highlight his proposed budget's spending increases for neighborhood prosecutors, public works public works pl.n. Construction projects, such as highways or dams, financed by public funds and constructed by a government for the benefit or use of the general public. Noun 1. and safety. These are all worthwhile priorities, and they reflect the mayor's primary goal to deflate (file format, compression) deflate - A compression standard derived from LZ77; it is reportedly used in zip, gzip, PKZIP, and png, among others. Unlike LZW, deflate compression does not use patented compression algorithms. secession by making L.A. a more livable city for all of its residents - which is a win-win situation for those who have long fought the self-servers down at City Hall. But before Angelenos can celebrate Hahn's much-ballyhooed spending hikes, we need to take a look at what he has in mind for spending cuts - and those won't be released until later this week. Due to a sluggish economy Sluggish Economy A state in the economy in which the growth is slow, flat or declining. The term can refer to the economy as a whole or a component of the economy, such as weak housing starts. and City Hall's long-term inability to streamline its expenses, the city government is looking at a $250 million deficit for fiscal year 2002-03. Add to that figure the millions more that Hahn is busily promising to various communities and it becomes clear that some major slashing is in order. That, too, is a good thing - if it gets rid of waste, inefficiency, failure and incompetence. That's the question That's the Question is an American quiz game show on GSN, hosted by game show veteran and former Entertainment Tonight reporter, Bob Goen, which premiered in October 2006. : Will Hahn's cuts come out of the bureaucracy, or out of public services? Or will the mayor, like Gov. Gray Davis, try to patch up a busted budget with accounting tricks and hocus-pocus, thereby postponing and worsening the inevitable? The final budget that Hahn offers will be a test of his leadership and his commitment to keeping L.A. together. It must be lean, sensible and, above all, open and honest. That means no stupid accountant tricks. Let's see a clear-cut budget that shows where the money's coming from, where it goes, what gets cut and why. This should be a budget that everyone can understand and only the downtown fat cats can dislike. |
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