LOS ANGELES – Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass signed the City of Los Angeles’ budget for the 2024-2025 fiscal year. The budget breaks away from budgets of the past by prioritizing people over empty desks and providing raises while focusing on hiring for positions that keep Angelenos safe and deliver critical services.
“This budget serves as a reset, in part by continuing to hire for critical positions including police officers and firefighters while eliminating some of the department’s vacant positions, thereby prioritizing our City family over empty desks,” said Mayor Bass. “I want to thank Council President Paul Krekorian and Council Budget Chairman Bob Blumenfield, and other members of the City Council for coming together to continue the progress that we began together last year on what matters most, from homelessness to safety and City services.”
This year's process has uncovered a clear need for a reset of the City’s budgeting process – one that is honest, transparent and squarely focused on doing a better job for Angelenos. Immediately after this budget takes effect, the City will begin an evaluation process for next year’s budget.
Key budget highlights include:
- HOMELESSNESS - This budget continues to respond to the homeless emergency and funds efforts to reduce homelessness. It continues to break new ground with new strategies and deliver more services and housing to bring more people inside from tents, cars and RVs. The budget also continues new efforts to prevent Angelenos from losing their homes and ending up on the streets. Two key goals that are supported by this budget proposal are lowering the cost of housing and developing a stronger model for delivering the services necessary to make sure Angelenos move from the streets and never return.
- SAFETY - Building on our work that has resulted in record numbers of applicants to the LAPD academy, the budget prioritizes the recruitment and retention of police officers and maintains our staffing goals for LAPD. The budget maintains funding for our new and expanded approaches to preventing crime and interrupting the cycles of violence through gang prevention, community violence intervention and other key programs. The budget also funds the hiring of firefighters and continues the Emergency Appointment Paramedic Program in response to the majority of medically related calls for service.
- CITY SERVICES - A world class city deserves world class services, which can not happen without investing in livable wages for City workers. In addition to first responders, there will also be a significant investment in other members of the City family. This ensures that quality critical services - from sanitation, pothole repairs to park maintenance to community beautification and traffic safety - are delivered to Angelenos in every corner of the city. We are eliminating many vacant positions to prioritize actual service delivery. These vacant positions do not fill potholes, sweep streets or staff parks – and too many of these positions have remained open and on the books for years. To build on the changes we have made to how the city delivers services to Angelenos and improve the delivery of services, the budget invests in upgrades to the city’s 311 system to better meet the needs of Angelenos to improve how departments respond to service calls and to keep residents better informed about progress on their requests.
- CLIMATE - We are working toward more sustainable and resilient City operations and infrastructure to protect the environment and build a greener Los Angeles. The budget continues to prioritize investments toward fighting climate change, including transportation electrification, water security, and organics recycling. The Mayor has announced a new climate cabinet, new climate plans at key city departments, stakeholder engagement, and action on climate justice. Together, we are advancing our work to make Los Angeles a 100% clean energy city by 2035.
- RESPONSIBLE AND TRANSPARENT GOVERNMENT - This budget ensures the City remains prepared to weather uncertainties in the year ahead and also invests in increased ethical governance. The City Charter requires a 2.75% emergency reserve and the City Financial Policy dictates a 2.25% contingency reserve, combining for a 5% cumulative reserve. This budget maintains an 8.32% cumulative reserve of General Fund receipts and preserves the Budget Stabilization Fund.