Mayor Bass signs $13.9 billion LA city budget, reaches LAPD hiring deal

LOS ANGELES (CNS) -- Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has signed a roughly $14 billion budget for fiscal year 2025-26, the Mayor's Office announced Saturday.

Bass singed the spending plan on Friday, the last day she could do so under a City Charter deadline.

The mayor also announced that she has secured an agreement with City Council leadership to restore hiring levels for the Los Angeles Police Department. Council leadership will identify funds for an additional 240 recruits within 90 days, which will be used after the LAPD completes the hiring of 240 officers, Bass' office said.

"This budget has been delivered under extremely difficult conditions - - uncertainty from Washington, the explosion of liability payments, unexpected rising costs and lower than expected revenues," Bass said in a statement. "This budget continues to aggressively combat the homelessness crisis and invest in emergency response and vital city services like street repair, parks and libraries. I want to thank the City Council for coming together on this deal as we work together to make Los Angeles safer for all."

The spending plan came together with the city facing with a roughly $1 billion deficit in the upcoming fiscal year. The council gave its second and final approval of the budget last week, which was sent to Bass for her to either approve or veto the plan. It addresses financial constraints and reduces proposed layoffs in an early draft.

Bass touted the following features of the budget, which she called "balanced":

-- Restoration of more than 1,000 city positions at risk of layoff to ensure delivery of vital services like pothole repair, traffic management, positions that support future housing development and more;

-- New investments in the Los Angeles Fire Department with more positions, funding for more paramedics and other resources;

-- All sworn officers and firefighters are funded;

-- Continued funding for 911 emergency dispatchers to lower wait times;

-- Protection for homeless funding;

-- Resources to continue driving the recovery from the Palisades Fire;

-- Library, Recreation and Park facility hours maintained.

-- Support for capital infrastructure projects including LA Convention Center, Sepulveda Basin improvements and recreation facilities in the San Fernando Valley and South LA;

-- All positions preserved for the Emergency Management Department with a priority to expand with future funding;

-- Continued funding for RepresentLA to provide legal representation to Angelenos;

-- Funding to keep all animal shelters open and add strategic additional staffing support.

"This has been one of the most difficult budgets we've faced," Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson said. "The budget approved today is both responsible and responsive to the challenges our city faces. Along the way to alignment, there were healthy discussions and differing views. And I would like to commend the mayor and the budget chair for staying focused on what is best for the city of Los Angeles. No one got everything they wanted. There is still more work ahead, especially our commitment to work with the mayor to identify the funds for an additional 240 recruits within 90 days. We will share further updates in the weeks ahead."

The council voted 11 to 2 to advance the budget resolution last week, which reflected the changes they made to Bass' initial proposal. Council members John Lee and Traci Park opposed the revised spending plan, while Nithya Raman and Monica Rodriguez were absent during the vote.

Bass initially called for 1,647 layoffs and the elimination of more than 1,000 vacant positions as part of a plan to address the deficit. To further reduce layoffs, city officials are considering the transfer of employees to proprietary departments such as the Department of Water and Power, airports and port -- which are not funded by the general fund but rather through revenue generated by their operations.

While unionized city employees recognized the effort to reduce layoffs, some say the loss of positions would likely cause severe cuts to essential services and increase liabilities in the next fiscal year.

An estimated 647 city workers could still be cut, potentially complicating the operations of various departments such as civil rights and equity and youth development, among others.

Charles Leon, a regional coordinator for Service Employees International Union Local 721, previously stated the union is committed to working with the city on workforce development, in particular to address vacancy rates. He called for open discussions to improve service delivery and promote career opportunities for historically underserved communities.

"This discussion needs to start now -- not at some better time in the unforeseeable future," Leon said.

SEIU Local 721, which represents some city workers, is part of the Coalition of Los Angeles City Unions, including the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees 3090, Teamsters, Laborers' International Union of North America Local 777, LA/OC Building Trades and others, who represent more than 10,000 city employees.

Key aspects of the revised spending plan include money for 240 new police officers over the coming year, down from 480 proposed by the mayor; and 58 new employees for the Los Angeles Fire Department, also a reduction from 227 proposed by Bass.

Overall, the police and fire departments are expected to receive a year-over-year increase in their operational budgets.

The council also reduced spending in Bass' signature homelessness program, Inside Safe.

The deficit is a result of overspending, costly liability payouts, lower tax revenues, labor contracts and fire recovery, among other challenges. The city is expected to cover $250 million due to labor agreements in 2025-26.

The city must adopt a new budget before the start of next fiscal year, which begins July 1.