Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa signed a $7 billion city budget Tuesday that calls for 1,200 layoffs, unpaid furloughs and a freeze on police expansion in the next fiscal year.

The budget includes money to replace up to 480 police officers who are lost through attrition, but it will halt to the mayor's efforts to increase the size of the force, unless the city gets money for law enforcement through the federal stimulus package, said mayor spokesman Matt Szabo. The budget also mandates 26 unpaid furlough days for civilian employees - equal to a 10 percent pay cut.

City officials could still cut $54 million for police officers and firefighters and require an additional 781 layoffs and 11 furlough days. That's because of another $95 million budget gap that was created when the City Council refused to approve the funding transfers recommended by the mayor.

The city faced a $529 million deficit when budget deliberations began. In previous years, Villaraigosa held a news conference where he signed the budget, but this year he made the announcement through a letter to members of the Los Angeles City Council.

The mayor wrote that the budget will require further adjustment to minimize service cuts in the face of the economic slump. "The duration and depth of the recession, the impact of the state budget crisis on the city and the outcome of negotiations with our labor partners remain uncertain," he wrote. The mayor's budget includes $77 million from the privatization of parking structures and meters, $10 million in redevelopment funds and $8 million from the sale of a city-owned property.