The City Council, following City Manager Tom Modica’s recommendations, on Tuesday passed a $3.6 billion city budget that solves a $20.3 million deficit, sheds pandemic-era programs and plans for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
In a 7-0 vote — council members Al Austin and Roberto Uranga were absent — the council approved a 2024-25 budget that includes $591 million for capital improvements, $2.48 billion in expenditures and $1.1 billion in carryover funds. The city also approved the proposed budgets for the Harbor and Utilities departments, which total a combined $1.1 billion.
It’s a lean budget, officials said. The 11% total increase from last year accounts largely for cost-of-living adjustments, rising insurance rates and inflation.
It is the culmination of 23 public meetings, including seven council hearings, which began in January and ramped up in August, following a near-recess in July.
Council members and Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson, whose offices are set to spend a combined $8.9 million dollars, reviewed proposals from the council’s budget committee, the mayor’s office and each respective department.
“It is budget time,” Richardson began. “It is a great time to be here.”
Councilmember Joni Ricks-Oddie, who chairs the city’s budget oversight committee, made more than a dozen recommendations to the budget that were all approved, including funding that extends the city’s Safe Passage Program through the 2024-25 school year.
The committee also secured $250,000 for street medians, $300,000 for youth programming and more for hot-button issues like wage protection, grant matching for the state’s Proposition 1 Bond and a pilot program to train firefighters to answer calls otherwise reserved for paramedics.
And while the committee agreed to fund a couple of positions otherwise lost in the sunset of the pandemic-era Long Beach Recovery Act, some of the public argued it was not enough.
Sashi Muralidharan, a district representative for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local 947, said that of the 73 public health workers expected to lose their jobs at the end of the month, more than 10 have been reassigned to permanent positions.
“The others have either separated from the city or been placed in the grant-funded positions that will expire in the next three to nine months,” Muralidharan said. “The city’s health depends on making the department’s funding structural and less reliant on grants so let’s put your support to that approach and action in 2025.”
A number of city fees will increase. Marina slips will cost another 2%, meters in Belmont Shore will rise several cents, monthly costs to park at City Place Parking Garage will nearly triple and fire permit fees will increase by varying amounts.
One resident, Kate Chung, urged the city to not accept the Utilities Commission’s 11% increase to water and 8% in sewage rates that, once approved, take effect next month.
“Instead, I would request a more gradual implementation of these rates over time to ease the burden on working families of Long Beach,” Chung said.
But these fees, paired with dipping into reserves, will shore up a $20.3 million gap widened by declining oil valuations. The city’s oil money is funneled through a city-run trust that is expected to plunge 63% by 2035.
Despite a presidential debate that stole much of the public’s attention, 56 people signed up to speak Tuesday.
Most made their final ask for more money or enshrinement into the general fund for several social justice programs. According to one activist who spoke, more than 30,000 undocumented immigrants live in Long Beach and struggle amid a “legal desert” to secure an attorney when they face deportation. Eviction is also an issue continually brought up at meetings: More than 2,400 evictions were filed citywide in 2023 — nearly 1,300 were filed through July this year, according to county court data.
Residents asked for — and the city approved — $1.1 million for the Long Beach Justice Fund, which fights against deportations; a $1.2 million expansion for the city’s existing Right-to-Counsel program, and $1.1 million for several anti-gun and anti-gang initiatives.