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LOS ANGELES () — Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass unveiled her new budget on Monday that includes no layoffs or furloughs.
The mayor is also up for reelection. At least one challenger in the mayor’s race – City Council member Nithya Raman – is sharply critical, saying the budget fails to properly maintain basic city services.
Bass’ budget proposal last year included layoffs. This year, Bass has put forth a balanced budget because she says the city is benefiting from increased revenues from business, sales and property taxes.
7 asked Bass about push back she’s received from the City Council for wanting to hire more LAPD officers.
“In a few short weeks we’re going to have the World Cup here and in another couple of years we will have the Olympics,” Bass responded. “I do believe, as I always have, that for the nation’s second-largest city, our force overall is relatively small, which is why we have the overtime hours and all of that.
“At this point, right now, my goal is still to expand to where we should be, but this year, it’s about worrying about the department shrinking. I know that even though people might have their differences of opinion over the LAPD, I feel very confident that there’s no member of the City Council that actually wants to see our force shrink.”
The $14.9 billion budget will keep most city services intact, retain the same number of firefighters and hire 510 LAPD officers, which accounts for an estimated 510 officers who will retire or leave the department.
Inside Safe, the mayor’s signature program to address homelessness – which has seen a reduction in street homelessness – will see the same funding as last year.
The budget also increases funding for street, sidewalk and street light repairs.
This budget is just a proposal and has to be approved by the City Council.
Eyewitness News heard from City Council member Nithya Raman, who is running against Bass in the upcoming election, about her thoughts on the proposed budget.
“The mayor is required to provide a balanced budget, and last year she delivered a budget that had a billion-dollar budget deficit that then planned for 1,600 layoffs in order to balance that budget,” Raman said. “We managed to stave off those layoffs through the council process by cutting every single city service down to the bone and every Angeleno can feel the impact of that.
“It’s why streetlights are taking a year to repair on average. It’s why our road conditions are worse than they have been in years… What we’re doing in this year’s budget is maintaining last year’s depleted conditions – and patting ourselves on the back for doing it, I don’t think that appropriate.”
In addition to Raman, Bass is facing tech entrepreneur Adam Miller and reality TV star Spencer Pratt in the June 2 primary.
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