Reply #20: LAT: Occupy L.A., wind damage may add to $72-million city budget shortfall

[ellisonz]

- David Zahniser at Los Angeles City Hall

Less than six months into its fiscal year, the city of Los Angeles faces a $72-million budget shortfall, raising the prospect of new cuts in services in coming weeks, according to a report released Friday.

City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana, budget advisor to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the City Council, called, as part of his interim financial status report, for nearly two dozen city agencies to absorb a combined $21 million in reductions. And he warned that the shortfall could grow once city officials calculate the cost of cleanup in the wake of this week's ferocious windstorms and the two-month encampment outside City Hall by Occupy L.A.

"These are unforeseen problems that we have to pay for one way or the other," Santana said in an interview. “The timing was not helpful.”

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With a shortfall expected to exceed $200 million for the fiscal year starting July 1, officials are "running out of options" for balancing the budget, he added.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/12/los-angel...