Government budgets need to be cut

Some days when you get home from work, you feel like spreading sunshine that will make the whole family feel warm and fuzzy. On other days, you're less optimistic. On really down days, you feel like a ticking time bomb that will explode at the slightest provocation.

On days like the latter, you might call your spouse and issue a warning. "Tell the kids not to fight and put the pets in the backyard. I'm almost home, and I'm not a happy camper."

These are stressful times for some of us, and especially our council members and members of the board of education. Incoming revenue isn't meeting expenses. It's not unlike a family that's shifting money from a savings account to a checking account. It will work for a while, but it's certainly time to rework the family budget and cut expenses.

And like a family, it's the toys and perks that are the first to go. It might mean that the new BMW or luxury SUV will have to wait a year or that the Caribbean cruise gets put on hold. The season tickets at Staples Center or Dodger Stadium might not get a renewal. For other families, the budget for vacations, weekend escapes, for dining out and going to shows and movies must be reduced. Included in the cutbacks are frills like DVDs and video games.

We expect our council members and trustees at the school district will demand similar cutbacks of nonessential expenses. The timing is perfect because budgets are now being planned for the next fiscal year.

Nobody can afford to slash necessities, but in every budget are items that can be pared or eliminated. If those cutbacks have already taken place, then the city and the school district need to show and prove that their budgets have excluded all "business as usual" expenses.

The time to cut budgets is when they're being planned.

That time is now.

Elected officials must remember, too, there's an election in November. If budgets aren't cut, voters will know.

And they won't be feeling warm and fuzzy when they go to the polls.