LOS ANGELES, Dec. 3 (UPI) -- Los Angeles officials are up against a $72 million budget shortfall less than halfway through the fiscal year, a report indicates.
City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana issued an interim report Friday that recommends cutting $21 million from the budgets of nearly two dozen city agencies to start whittling away at the growing deficit, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The budget problem could get worse because of costs associated with cleaning up after recent windstorms and the Occupy LA encampment, the newspaper said.
"These are unforeseen problems that we have to pay for one way or the other," Santana told the Times. "The timing was not helpful."
He suggests cuts to city police, the city attorney's office and the streets department to start dealing with the problem. He said he'll be spending the next month coming up with more ways to save money but added officials are "running out of options" for balancing the budget.
