EDITORIAL TEPID PLAN BUDGET REFLECTS MAYOR'S LACK OF DYNAMIC VISION FOR L.A.THE city budget that Mayor 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 has proposed for the next fiscal year has an appropriate title: ``Best Practices L.A.'' In a city that so desperately needs a dynamic road map to better transportation, schools and so many other issues, Hahn has offered a bureaucrat's prescription for improving managerial controls. It is a tepid, uninspiring uninspiring Adjective not likely to make people interested or excited Adj. 1. uninspiring - depressing to the spirit; "a villa of uninspiring design" inspiring - stimulating or exalting to the spirit budget proposal that fails to address the major issues facing 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. in a significant way. Is anyone surprised? That same description could easily apply to the whole of Hahn's four years as mayor. His latest budget, like his administration, seems to be about preserving a busted status quo [Latin, The existing state of things at any given date.] Status quo ante bellum means the state of things before the war. The status quo to be preserved by a preliminary injunction is the last actual, peaceable, uncontested status which preceded the pending controversy. , maintaining unsustainable spending patterns, preserving a bloated bureaucracy and skimping 'skimping' Managed care The delaying or denial of services to members of a prepaid or 'capped' health plan, to control costs–because the monies received by the health plan remain constant, providing 'extra' services is more costly to the plan. See Skimming, Capitation. on the vital public services the city greatly needs. He clearly believes that small, incremental improvements are all Los Angeles needs. And so out of the $6 billion at his disposal, he has found modest sums of money to make some modest improvements to life in the city. So there are funds for 360 extra police officers. There's more money for a few more after-school programs, and funding for 120 new firefighters and $3 million for the Orange Line Busway in the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. . There are allocations for 200 miles of street construction and 300 miles of slurry-sealing. All of which is welcome and good, but wholly inadequate in a city that's short by thousands of police officers, thousands of miles of crumbling roads and no comprehensive effort to keep kids out of gangs. Meanwhile, the Hahn budget contains no meaningful cuts. No efficiencies. No paring away of departments or programs that are outdated or ineffective. Thus, to help pay for next year's budget's goodies, Hahn has to raid the cookie jar, using $280 million in last year's surplus, the result of high property-tax revenues in this overheated o·ver·heat v. o·ver·heat·ed, o·ver·heat·ing, o·ver·heats v.tr. 1. To heat too much. 2. To cause to become excited, agitated, or overstimulated. v.intr. real-estate market. But that plan has a danger: Locking into long-term spending patterns based on short-term windfalls is exactly the sort of accounting that got the state into its mess. But for Hahn, fiscal responsibility isn't what matters; getting re-elected is. Odd, though, that he would think this budget is the way to do it. |
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