Out of Control

If, in the coming weeks and months, LA politicos complain that there’s not enough money for (fill in the blank), perhaps they should think long and hard about why the city council just decided to fork over $177 million to a wealthy developer to build a fancy hotel next to the money losing Convention Center.

Interesting that, as Peter Gordon points out, the same city council just voted against hiring more cops.

And it turns out that the Convention Center has already been dipping into public safety funds:

The dearth of conventions means the Convention Center has not generated enough money to meet its payments on $525 million in bonds that were issued in 1993 to pay for a major expansion. As a result, the city uses $22 million a year from its general fund, which normally pays for police and fire services, to meet the debt payments on the bonds.