LA Mayor Karen Bass discusses budget ahead of State of the City address
From the deadly fires, a historic Hollywood production slump and a budget crisis, Mayor Karen Bass urged Los Angeles to brace for the future as she prepares to deliver a difficult State of the City address Monday.
"It's going to be a very, very difficult budget," she said. "We are very concerned about the impact that's going to have on the workforce. We're working until the last minute. We hope to avoid layoffs. We hope to avoid drastic cuts. But, we are going to have to make some structural changes."
Faced with seemingly no other options, City Administrative Officer Matt Szabo told Bass and other council members that LA's $1 billion budget shortfall made "layoffs nearly inevitable."
However, thousands of layoffs "cannot and will not be the only solution" to the city's dire situation, according to Szabo. The City Council must consider service cuts to balance its budget. In closed session, city leaders also mulled over the possibility of deferring union-negotiated raises to police officers, firefighters, trash truck drivers and librarians.
During Black Lives Matter Los Angeles' annual presentation of the People's Budget in Leimert Park, Bass said the city had chipped away at the $1 billion deficit by Friday night.
"We started about a month ago with a $1 billion deficit," she said. "We were able to bring that down to about $800 million."
A core mission of BLM LA is to defund the Los Angeles Police Department and allocate the agency's budget to other city programs.
"Why are we spending money on police when we need to figure out how to make sure everyone living on Skid Row is housed?" co-founder Melina Abdullah said. "Why are we spending money on police when we need to make sure that everyone eats?"
Two years ago, Bass and the City Council negotiated substantial raises and benefits boosts for the LAPD to help retain and increase staffing at the severely shorthanded department. She maintained her support for police, though it's not clear what budget cuts they may face.
A recent poll from the LA Times and UC Berkeley showed that Bass' popularity has taken a huge hit in the aftermath of the fires. However, Bass said she is focused on the recovery, which she said is way ahead of schedule.
"That is the center of what is happening in our city right now," Bass said. "I don't care how fast we are rebuilding. The people who are still out of their homes, it's still too long. But, I have to tell you, we are months, if not a year, ahead."
Another factor looming over the city's budget is President Trump's tariffs.
"What we're all going through in the country is just the uncertainty," Bass said. "There's only so much we can control here. The decisions that are being made on a federal level impact us. Will there be tariffs? Will there be a trade war? All of that impacts us on a day-to-day basis."
