L.A. Officials Warned About $50-Million Budget Deficit

Los Angeles city officials got another dose of bad fiscal news Tuesday: word of a growing deficit--pegged at $50 million--in this year’s budget.

City finance officials assured the council’s Budget and Finance Committee that the gap in the $3.9-billion spending plan can be closed before the June 30 end of the 1995-96 fiscal year by delaying some projects and dipping into reserve funds. But they acknowledged that there is little hope of balancing the books without adding to the even-greater problems anticipated in the coming budget year.

The biggest factors in the projected deficit are snares in the mayor’s plans to transfer “surplus” Department of Water and Power money to the city general fund, to shift some funds from the Community Redevelopment Agency, and to charge the Harbor Department for services provided to it by other city agencies, including some performed in past years.

The DWP and CRA, struggling with budget problems of their own, have been unable to meet the funds transfer amounts approved by the City Council last spring. And the California Lands Commission has disputed about $20 million of the amount the city was counting on recouping from the Harbor Department.