The city of Los Angeles is facing a budget deficit that may hit $400 million this year.
The city is increasingly spending more money while increasingly taking in less money in tax revenue. KNX News’ Craig Fiegener reported that L.A.’s administrative officer, Matt Szabo, talked to councilmembers about new items that are impacting the budget, like the Los Angeles Police Department contract that gives police a 20% raise over the next four years.
“That contract alone will add $75 million in additional costs in ‘24-25, $394 million in costs over four years,” he explained. “So without immediate action to reduce expenditures, we would be looking at a $350 to $400 million deficit heading into ‘24-25.”
Szabo suggested that there are about 4,000 jobs that can be left unfilled. He told councilmembers that removing those jobs from the books could free up hundreds of millions of dollars.
Want to get caught up on what's happening in SoCal every weekday afternoon? Click to follow The L.A. Local wherever you get podcasts.
“We are funding, every year, thousands and thousands of positions that are supposed to carry out services that … are not filled, that will not be filled,” Szabo said. “The other way to think about that is that we are tying up $283 million of our budget this year in positions that are not providing any service because they are vacant.”
L.A. council members agreed to begin the process of identifying which noncritical job vacancies can remain unfilled.
Follow KNX News 97.1 FM
Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | TikTok