Faced with yet another budget shortfall, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa called Monday for the elimination of 209 city jobs and urged the City Council to press ahead with a plan for rolling back pension benefits for newly hired civilian workers.

In a letter to council members, Villaraigosa said overspending and "unanticipated expenditures" had left L.A. with a deficit just four months into a new fiscal year. He asked policymakers to cast a second and final vote on his reduced-benefits pension plan and said his budget advisors would begin identifying new long-term cost-cutting measures, including a ballot measure to strip the city attorney's office of any responsibility for civil cases.

"The fiscal reality calls on us to do business differently and move forward with initiatives we never would have considered under different circumstances," he wrote.

Read more at the LA Times