Compromise Try Begun on L.A. Budget : Finances: Council, mayor privately discuss ways to close $177-million deficit. Taxes on cable TV, entertainment tickets are central to dispute.

Fearing a legislative deadlock over two bitterly contested tax proposals, Los Angeles City Council members have begun a behind-the-scenes effort to work out a compromise with Mayor Tom Bradley to avert a last-minute veto and an unbalanced budget.

“There’s lots of discussion going on,” Deputy Mayor Mark Fabiani said Tuesday. “There’s lots of ideas on the table,” but no apparent solution yet, he said.

The council and Bradley are divided on two tax proposals that have sparked one of the most intense City Hall lobbying campaigns in years.

In an effort to help close a $177-million budget deficit, Bradley proposed a 10% tax on cable television bills. That was rejected by the council, which tentatively adopted a 10% tax on admissions to entertainment events. Bradley has vowed to veto that proposal, which passed on a minimum 8-4 vote.

If neither tax is approved, the city’s proposed $3.9-billion budget would be out of balance by about $12 million. Under the City Charter, the budget must be balanced by June 1 when it is sent back to the mayor.

Councilwoman Joy Picus said she is concerned that the council will not be able to muster enough votes to override a Bradley veto of the admissions tax or to adopt a cable tax. “If we don’t have the votes (to adopt a tax), we’ll have to cut the budget, and I’m not prepared to cut cops or programs for school kids,” she said. Already the mayor and council have cut spending requests by about $100 million.

Among the compromise proposals being floated are an income tax, an increase in utility taxes and imposition of both the admissions and cable taxes--but at reduced levels.

Councilman Michael Woo said he is talking to “fiscal experts both in and outside of the city (government)” to identify alternative revenue sources. His staff has been working closely with the mayor’s staff, Fabiani said. Woo and Fabiani declined to identify the revenue sources.

Some council members are preparing for the possibility that a compromise will not be reached in time.

If an agreement is not achieved, the budget dilemma may be decided by someone not yet elected to city office, according to several council members. A deadlock on the new taxes, they say, could be broken by the election of new members to two vacant seats.

On June 4, voters in the council’s 9th District, covering downtown and South-Central Los Angeles, will elect a successor to the late Gilbert Lindsay. On the same day, a primary election will be held in the Eastside’s 1st District to choose a successor to Gloria Molina, who was elected to the Board of Supervisors.

Winners of those contests could join the council in time to vote on budget measures vetoed by Bradley, according to council President John Ferraro and others.

“We could have them on deck?” asked Picus. “It is possible. But that’s pretty brutal to ask a new council member to vote for new taxes.”

Under the City Charter, the council needs 10 votes to override a veto. Vacant seats on the 15-member body essentially count as no votes, giving the mayor an upper hand until the seats are filled.

Meanwhile, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn. has joined the Los Angeles and San Fernando Valley boards of realtors in opposing a proposed real estate transfer tax that would raise $52.7 million annually. The tax--which would amount to $900 on the sale of a $200,000 home--was proposed by Bradley and narrowly upheld by the council last week.

“While we intend to fight the transfer tax politically from the grass roots, we also believe this tax increase would be in violation of Proposition 13,” said Joel Fox, president of the taxpayers group. Proposition 13 was the 1978 statewide ballot measure sponsored by the late Howard Jarvis that limited property taxes throughout California. Fox said his organization is preparing a mail campaign to homeowners to alert them to “this new assault on their wallets.”

The coalition formed to fight the entertainment tax met for the first time Tuesday to prepare for its lobbying campaign. A spokeswoman for the coalition of movie studios, theater owners and sports and music promoters said the group gathered 40,000 signatures on petitions in opposition to the tax at local theaters over the weekend.

With all these various lobbying efforts under way, one thing is clear, according to one council aide: “Everything is fluid. Very fluid. Totally liquid.”