The Mayor insists....

Around the time yesterday that the Los Angeles City Council was collectively breathing a huge sigh of relief that the Chief Legislative Analyst found $97 million to help restore favorite services and balance the budget, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's office sent over a little letter with a demand.

The mayor, you see, had proposed cutting park rangers, library hours, library books, film festivals, community cleanups, and the calligraphers that produce those pretty resolutions in honor of community leaders -- all to help close a $406 million budget gap.

The City Council balked at those cuts and proposed putting upwards of $63 million in spending back in the budget, according to a high estimate. That prompted the mayor to complain during a community forum this week that the council was willing to spend without making their own sacrifices, such as cutting the number of city cars assigned to council staff.

So, when the CLA found $97 million, which allowed the council to send out a gloating press release and be the heroes who restored funding to popular programs that the mean old mayor cut, well, that was too much.

Villaraigosa fired off a letter: "I must insist that this additional revenue be used to restore funding to important services which support the core functions and priorities of the city."

He insists! The word infuriated council members. Most of the services that the mayor insisted on funding were already restored by the council, but that only fueled the fury.

"That's money we found," one council member seethed.

Does it really matter to the average Angeleno who proposed cuts and who restored funding? Probably not. Nobody ever notices what is preserved, only what's taken away.