LOS ANGELES (KNX) - The Los Angeles City Council voted 13-1 to approve an amended version of Mayor Karen Bass’ proposed 2023-24 budget.
The main point of contention during Thursday’s meeting was the increase in funding for the Los Angeles Police Department, including $7.4 million for a new LAPD helicopter.
Councilmember Katy Young Yaroslavsky put forward a motion to use that money to buy more electric buses instead.
“This one seems a bit opulent,” Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez said in support of the motion. “The LAPD currently has 17 helicopters. I think for this year, we could use that money to electrify some of our DOT buses.”
“Helicopters are shown to leave more pollution than even private jets. I get complaints regularly about helicopters hovering over our community,” Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez added.
Councilmembers Nithya Raman, Heather Hutt and Marqueece Harris-Dawson also opposed the new chopper, but the motion ultimately failed in a 6-8 vote.
The council also approved Bass’ requested $250 million for her signature Inside Safe program, which will be dispersed in $50 million chunks rather than all at once, in what budget committee chairman Bob Blumenfield referred to as an “auto refill concept.”
Blumenfield has called for more transparency on how Inside Safe’s money is being spent. The budget proposal will allow City Council to stop renewing the program’s funding if they decide it’s going in the wrong direction.
The lone “no” vote on the amended budget was Councilmember Hernandez, who campaigned on defunding the police. The mayor’s proposed budget increases the LAPD’s funding by more than $118 million over the previous fiscal year, including money to hire hundreds of new officers.
“Budgets are a statement of values—and a budget that allocates one quarter of our entire budget to LAPD while underfunding every other department and service does not reflect my values or the values of my constituents,” Hernandez wrote on Twitter.
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