LOS ANGELES (KNX) - L.A. Mayor Karen Bass unveiled her city budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year today. As she teased in last night’s State of the City Address, the nearly $13 billion proposal focuses on increasing funding for homelessness initiatives and the Los Angeles Police Department.
Bass’ proposal includes an “unprecedented” $1.3 billion to address the homelessness crisis. She’s asking for another $250 million for her signature Inside Safe program, on top of the $50 million City Council already approved for the pilot phase.
“This budget breaks new ground by funding the purchase of hotels and motels, which will reduce costs compared with renting rooms,'' Bass said. “This is long overdue and something that the community sees as just common sense.''
The mayor’s plan is to acquire as many as 10 motels and hotels for interim housing, KNX News’ Craig Fiegener reports. Bass also said in last night’s address that city staff is looking at 3000 city-owned land parcels to find locations that could be used for housing.
Bass’ other main budget priority is beefing up the LAPD’s dwindling ranks. The mayor says there are currently barely 9100 officers in the LAPD, with several hundred expected to retire this year. Her spending plan includes about $1 million to expedite the hiring process, with the goal of reaching 9504 sworn officers by June 30, 2024.
To meet that goal, the city is developing a program to offer $15,000 recruitment bonuses for new hires. Bass also wants to provide funds for recently-retired officers to come back to work for 12 months while the city ramps up its recruitment efforts.
Bass told KNX News that she knows some members of City Council "are not going to be supportive" of the increase in LAPD funding. "But the reality is, numbers for law enforcement are way down. There is no reason to think we are not going to drop to a historically low number of police officers."
City News Service contributed to this report.
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