Bass Releases $12.8B Proposed Budget; $242M Cut from This Fiscal Year

The proposal now goes to the City Council for revisions. The fiscal year begins July 1.

"We're here today to lay out a path forward for Los Angeles," Bass said during a news conference at City Hall. "As I said during the State of the City (speech) a week ago, the state of Los Angeles is stronger because of the work we are doing to break the status quo."

Bass stressed that her proposed budget will continue the city's work in addressing challenges such homelessness, public safety and meeting climate goals.

"This budget continues our momentum toward change by prioritizing core city services, but using this as an opportunity as a reset, so that our budgets moving forward are more honest, transparent and more focused," she said.

On the issue of homelessness, the proposed budget would allocate $185 million to Bass' cornerstone program, Inside Safe, a decrease of $65 million from this fiscal year.

Of this funding, about $70 million would be used to pay for motel rooms and other interim housing, while another $60 million would cover social- services at these sites, including health care, meals, case management, housing navigation and substance-use programs. About $28 million would be allocated for permanent housing and time-limited subsidies, and $24 million for housing acquisition.

Bass also proposed $2 million to expand street medicine teams and continue providing medical visits to people experiencing homelessness. Her office noted that more than 6,000 medical exams were conducted by these street teams this fiscal year.

Another $3 million would support the Los Angeles Regional Initiative for Social Enterprise program, known as LA Rise, which provides subsidized job opportunities for unhoused people. An additional $4.1 million would be spent on mobile hygiene centers. About $17 million would be spent on FamilySource Centers, which help families at-risk of falling into homelessness.

Affordable-housing efforts would receive $4.4 million from state grants, with plans to expedite processes for mixed-income residential projects with on-site affordable units. City officials are looking to expand homelessness prevention programs by leveraging more Measure ULA dollars from $150 million to more than $400 million. Passed by LA voters in 2022, Measure ULA, known as the "Mansion Tax," is a special tax on property sales exceeding $5 million.

Meanwhile, with Bass stressing the need to recruit sworn officers to the LAPD's depleted ranks, the police department would receive an increase of $138,168,080 -- to $1,993,846,820 -- from the city's general fund. Combined with federal, state and other funding sources, the overall LAPD budget is about $3.3 billion.

The goal, Bass has repeatedly said, is increasing the number of officers to 9,084, though city leaders have said they want to hire 9,500 officers by 2028 or earlier.

In 2023, the city approved contracts with the unions representing LAPD's low- and high-ranking officers that are expected to cost more than $1 billion through 2027.

The fire department, meanwhile, would see a decrease of $22,909,285 in the proposed budget -- $814,281,952.

However, the proposal would increase funding for the fire department to support the Emergency Appointment Paramedic Program, with city officials noting the LAFD responds to more calls for service related to medical emergencies than other categories.

In addition, another $2.5 million would bring new equipment and technology updates for the LAFD, prompted by the aftermath fire beneath the Santa Monica (10) Freeway that forced a temporary close of the road.

The proposed budget also invests $50 million in alternative response programs, such as the Crisis and Incident Response through Community-Led Engagement, Summer Night Lights program, and the Office of Community Safety.

City Administrative Officer Matt Szabo has said the city faces a $469 million deficit, a combination of $289 million in unexpected spending and $180 million in less revenue than expected. City revenue generated by several taxes have come in slowly and continue to do so, while overspending was partly due to costs associated with public-safety overtime, liability claims and other issues, Szabo has said.

To right-size the budget, city officials have dipped into the reserve fund. Additionally, the city has implemented a hiring priority plan, and will look to eliminate 2,000 vacant positions from the books, which could save the city $150 million to $200 million.

Bass noted the city would invest $1.8 million to modernize the city's MyLA311 system to improve accountability and respond quicker to resident's service requests.

"The mayor's proposed budget projects only a 1% increase in revenue growth over the adopted budget for this current fiscal year -- that's just $83 million," Szabo said during Monday's budget briefing.

"We are predicting trends in our economically sensitive revenues that we continue to see downward pressure on sales, business, hotel, documentary transfer, and property taxes."

He added, "We are still seeing the effects of high interest rates and inflation that are having effect on consumer behavior on the housing market."

Szabo noted the proposed budget would ensure the city remains within its financial policy of maintaining a 5% reserve fund.

"The mayor's fiscal 2024-25 proposed budget builds on the efforts enacted in the current year to stabilize the city's fiscal condition in response to growing challenges," Szabo said. "It provides clarity on how we will address the budget imbalance caused by rising expenses at a time of limited revenue growth and it presents a path toward returning to structural balance by fiscal year 2028-29."

Other highlights of the mayor's proposed budget, include:

-- $13.1 million for street lights and the prevention copper wire theft;

-- $2.2 million for 128 more crossing guards at Los Angeles Unified School District schools;

-- $35.7 million for sidewalk improvements;

-- $24.6 million in fleet vehicle replacements and $14 million to purchase new electric buses for the city's Commuter Express service;

-- $1.2 million for 150 more electric-vehicle chargers in low-income neighborhoods, and

-- $4.8 million for infrastructure improvements at the Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant and another $1.5 million for other water conservation efforts.

L.A. City Councilman Bob Blumenfield, who chairs the council's budget committee, described Bass' proposal as "thoughtful," and said it prioritizes critical services while making "necessary cuts."

"Over the next few weeks, the City Council will do a deep dive, line by line, to ask questions about each department and service," Blumenfield said.

"I look forward to having these conversations with our general managers and the public as we strive to address public safety, basic services, the needs of people experiencing homelessness, and maximizing every dollar of taxpayer funds."

The board of directors of the Los Angeles Police Protective League -- the labor union representing the LAPD's rank-and-file -- called Bass' proposal "forward-thinking and innovative with regard to public safety."

"We applaud the mayor for remaining focused on retaining police officers, recruiting qualified individuals to join the LAPD and funding unarmed responses to mental health calls," the board said in a statement. "These priorities, coupled with other critical initiatives in her budget, provides the most credible path forward to ensure the safety of all Angelenos."

On social media, City Controller Kenneth Mejia announced his office would be examining the proposal and providing "transparency" in the following weeks. Mejia's office would see a 12% reduction, or $7 million less than in the current budget.

"We are encouraged by her commitment to tackling four more years of projected budget deficits with a strategic approach after this budget is signed," according to a statement from Mejia.

But he warned of "immediate and visible" impacts to the city's ability to deliver services. Most troubling, he said, is the claim that the city's plan to ax more than 1,700 vacant positions from the workforce will not have significant impact on city services.

"Eliminating needed positions just because they are currently vacant will create an ongoing hole in the ability of virtually every department to maintain today's level of services," he said. "Similarly, the continued trend of under-investing in capital spending on deferred maintenance in our city's infrastructure will trigger higher costs in the future including in liability claims."

He also expressed disappointment with a plan to eliminate 18 regular positions that have yet to be filled in his office, leaving his staff with nine positions. In his statement, Mejia said his office continues to be short- staffed to "handle our charter-mandated functions of serving as the city's accountant, auditor and paymaster."