Measure "S" Passes; Budget Outlook Less Gloomy

Councilmember Tom LaBonge and other city leaders joined Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa Wednesday morning to thank Los Angeles voters for passing Proposition S, which is expected to generate $243 million annually to pay for city services. Prop. S is a nine percent telephone users tax that will replace an existing levy expected to be invalidated by a federal court.

The loss of these revenue in an already tight, if not critical budget year, would have resulted in serious consequences, the Mayor and others stated. The campaign was devised around a message of public safety and how it would be compromised if Prop. S went down to defeat.

Voters "sent us a very clear message yesterday. They said that we can't afford to concede the gains we've made over the last few years in making Los Angeles a safer city," the Mayor said.

Despite passage of Prop. S, the city still faces a $156 million shortfall this fiscal year and a $300 million shortfall in the 2008-2009 fiscal year.

Councilmember LaBonge said he has seen the city's coffers rise and fall before in his three-plus decades of city service and said he supports looking at ways to examine how the city can function for efficiently without compromising service.