L.A. gets new budget

os Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Thursday signed the $6.9 billion budget for the coming year that avoids layoffs and widespread employee furloughs thanks to benefits concessions made by city workers. Daily News.

The agreement approved by most municipal employees to contribute to their retirement health care and pensions was key to bringing some stability to the the city's finances, he said.

"For the last three years, there have been people who don't know enough about what we go through who said we should just shut our doors," Villaraigosa said at a budget signing ceremony at Martin Luther King Jr. park in South Los Angeles.