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LA WATCHDOG - The Los Angeles Fire Department has requested an $882 million budget for the upcoming fiscal year, a $62 million, 7.6% increase from this year’s adopted budget of $820 million. This does not include non-departmental requests of $244 million for its fleet, its tech and capital improvement program, and reserves. This also does not include related costs (pensions and healthcare) that will probably be in the range of $550 million. Overall, the Fire Department is requesting an overall budget of $1.7 billion.
But the Fire Department is not the only entity that wants increased funding. Based on a review of the budget requests that were submitted to the Mayor in late November by the City’s 39 departments, the requested increases exceed $600 million, a 10.6% increase over the adopted budgets for this year.
These include the Police Department ($161 million, an 8% increase) and the six Public Works bureaus ($150 million, a 17% increase) as well as many other smaller departments.
The budget is also under considerable pressure from existing and future liability claims and increased human resources benefits associated with the budget busting labor contracts.
The increased demands on the City’s treasury are at least $800 million. On the other hand, City revenues are expected to increase by slightly more than $100 million, leaving a gap of at least $700 million.
Will there be enough money to meet the demands of the Police and Fire Departments and the Bureau of Sanitation? Obviously not.
The Palisades Fire will only add to the City’s fiscal woes. Property tax revenues will take a hit as well as the other six economically sensitive taxes. The City will have to pay for increased overtime for the firefighters and police and will need to repair the streets and other infrastructure that has been damaged or destroyed.
While Mayor Karen Bass and Budget and Finance Chair Katy Yaroslavsky will not update us on the budget, the City Controller is required by the Charter to provide us with his Revenue Forecast Report by March 1st. In the past, this report has provided an accurate picture of the City’s revenue, although it tends to be more conservative than our elected officials would like.
The Mayor and her budget team along with the City Administrative Officer will be scrambling to balance the budget, more than likely coming up with schemes that will solve problems in the short term but that are not in the best long-term interests of Angelenos.
According to the Los Angeles Times and many others, the City is “broke.” It is time for major reforms of the City’s budget and finances, including the development of a realistic Four-Year General Fund Budget Outlook that has been requested of Budget Chair Yaroslavsky. More later.
(Jack Humphreville writes LA Watchdog for CityWatch. He is the President of the DWP Advocacy Committee, the Budget and DWP representative for the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council, and a Neighborhood Council Budget Advocate. He can be reached at: [email protected]. )
