Apr 01 2014
Why Does LA Pay Out More in Fees to Wall Street Than it Does To Fix City Streets?
Los Angeles is a city plagued by potholes, overflowing sewers, a perpetually underfunded school system and a projected 2014 budget deficit of $243 million. The Fix LA Coalition, a group of labor and civic groups, has found that in 2013, despite its crippling financial problems, the city paid a startling $204 million in fees to Wall Street banks. The disturbing report is entitled No Small Fees: LA Spends More on Wall Street than Our Streets. Their figure of $204 million may actually be an underestimate of the amount which the city owes to hedge funds and private equity firms. Under current disclosure laws the city is not required to reveal these numbers to the public.
To remedy the situation Fix LA has proposed a series of reforms. The first step in finding a solution is to provide the public with a comprehensive transparent budget which accounts for these payments. Another solution is to leverage the city’s $100 billion worth of investments to renegotiate fees and if need be, sue the institutions which have bankrupted the community by illegally manipulating markets. It is believed that municipalities across the US lose an estimated $50 billion a year through similar Wall Street fees.
GUEST: Lisa Cody, Research Analyst with SEIU Local 721, and author of the report, No Small Fees: LA Spends More on Wall Streets than Our Streets
Visit www.fixla.org for more information about the report and the coalition behind it. There will be a budget discussion at the April 28th LA City Council meeting at which residents are encouraged to bring up the report’s findings.
One Response to “Why Does LA Pay Out More in Fees to Wall Street Than it Does To Fix City Streets?”
Great radio interview on an astounding piece of research, hitherto hidden from the taxpayers of Los Angeles. It is time to restore neighborhood services and to recoup lost revenue given away to Wall Street banking barons.