FIXING VALLEY'S `FAIR SHARE' A TASK STREWN WITH OBSTACLES.Byline: Shirley Svorny ON Oct. 14, the Daily News ran a set of articles focused on spending 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. by the city of Los Angeles
The analysis of city spending initiated by the Daily News and ``fleshed out by budget analysts in Mayor Riordan's office'' is similar to one I was involved in several months ago. In May 1996 Brodie Carroll, a Cal State Northridge student, and I reported the findings of our analysis of city spending in the Valley. The project Brodie began for a class I teach on the San Fernando Valley economy ended up taking up much of both of our time for several months. Because of this, I appreciate how difficult it is to correctly assess the share of city spending allocated to the San Fernando Valley. Reading the Daily News stories reminded me of the many issues that keep us from resolving this matter. My feeling is that the search for information from the city has a long way to go. First, a significant portion of the city spending involves citywide services. It is not simple to assess the portion of these ``centralized'' services that accrue to Valley residents. For example, many of the functions of the Office of the City Clerk In the United States, a City Clerk is an elected or appointed official who is responsible as the official keeper of the municipal records. In some places, the Clerk may be known as the "Village Clerk" or "Town Clerk". are citywide in nature. In the figures reported in the Daily News, these centralized cen·tral·ize v. cen·tral·ized, cen·tral·iz·ing, cen·tral·iz·es v.tr. 1. To draw into or toward a center; consolidate. 2. services are said to comprise 25 percent of total city spending. In our study, we found the number to be much higher. I wonder what assumptions were made by the budget analysts who prepared the numbers quoted in the Daily News. Several times, when Brodie and I visited with city officials, they suggested that we allocate a share of a department budget by the size of the Valley. For instance, unsure how to allocate a specific portion of her department's budget, an analyst suggested, ``the Valley is about one-third - use one-third.'' Of course, this is assuming the result, and not the way to go. I have other questions. Did the budget analysts responsible for the Daily News figures pull out the museums, the zoo and the observatory observatory, scientific facility especially equipped to detect and record naturally occurring scientific phenomena. Although geological and meteorological observatories exist, the term is generally applied to astronomical observatories. before calculating the Valley share of city spending? These are used by residents all over the city and spending on these attractions should not be attributed to the areas in which they are located. The proper basis for assessing the Valley share of city spending varies from one city department to another. It appears that some of the allocations reported in the Daily News were done on the basis of staffing (the Departments of Building and Safety and Transportation). But salaries are a better measure. If, for example, city employees in the Valley earn, on average, more than city employees located elsewhere, then employment in the Valley will understate un·der·state v. un·der·stat·ed, un·der·stat·ing, un·der·states v.tr. 1. To state with less completeness or truth than seems warranted by the facts. 2. the Valley share of total city spending in these departments. For the Bureau of Sanitation sanitation: see plumbing; sanitary science. , regional staffing is a poor measure of spending, as waste flows from all over the city to centralized waste treatment plants. In this case, the Valley share of spending is better measured by looking at the flow of waste in the Valley than by counting staff positions located in the Valley. What measure did the city budget analysts use? What about spending on street maintenance? Were the analysts careful to pull the Palisades Palisades, cliffs along the west bank of the Hudson River, NE N.J. and SE N.Y., extending from N of Jersey City, N.J., to the vicinity of Piermont, N.Y., with a general altitude of from 350 ft to 550 ft (107–168 m). and Bel-Air out of the Valley divisions in which they are included? The Daily News reported a large share of Department of Building and Safety spending in the Valley - 40 percent. However, when we looked at the 1995-96 Building and Safety budget, we were told that much of it reflected the unique conditions brought on by repairs related to the Northridge Earthquake The Northridge earthquake occurred on January 17, 1994 at 4:31 AM Pacific Standard Time in the city of Los Angeles, California. The earthquake had a "strong" moment magnitude of 6. . Focusing only on inspectors (one-third of the B&S budget), who are assigned specific regions, and excluding engineers, whose location depends on where building permits have been issued, we found the Valley accounted for 35.8 percent of B&S spending. I'm most interested in the tax numbers. The Daily News reports that 31.5 percent of city tax revenues come from the Valley. In my attempts to sort out the Valley share of city tax revenues, I got the impression it was a fairly Herculean task. For example, the coding in the retail sales tax sales tax, levy on the sale of goods or services, generally calculated as a percentage of the selling price, and sometimes called a purchase tax. It is usually collected in the form of an extra charge by the retailer, who remits the tax to the government. database does not allow a simple assessment of revenues received from the Valley. There are almost 40,000 entries for the city, many of which do not list the ZIP code zip code System of postal-zone codes (zip stands for “zone improvement plan”) introduced in the U.S. in 1963 to improve mail delivery and exploit electronic reading and sorting capabilities. of the establishment. Did someone examine those to arrive at the Valley tax share quoted in Sunday's article? Finally, it seems instructive to think about why we are gathering this data in the first place. Is it our goal to allocate regional city spending on the basis of population for every city department, despite variations in local needs? As I see it, the public debate should not be over whether each and every community receives its ``fair share.'' I would like to see the debate turn, instead, to the relative merits of creating smaller political jurisdictions. MEMO: Shirley Svorny is a professor of economics and director of the Center for the Study of the San Fernando Valley Economy at Cal State Northridge. She is an affiliated scholar at the Milken Institute for Job & Capital Formation in Santa Monica Santa Monica (săn`tə mŏn`ĭkə), city (1990 pop. 86,905), Los Angeles co., S Calif., on Santa Monica Bay; inc. 1886. Tourism and retailing are important, and the city has motion-picture, biotechnology, and software industries. . CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: Gridlock Gridlock A government, business or institution's inability to function at a normal level due either to complex or conflicting procedures within the administrative framework or to impending change in the business. delays this MTA (1) (Message Transfer Agent or Mail Transfer Agent) The store and forward part of a messaging system. See messaging system. (2) See M Technology Association. 1. (messaging) MTA - Message Transfer Agent. bus headed downtown. DailyNews |
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