The L.A. County Board of Supervisors prepared residents for significant cuts and a budget that 5th District Supervisor Kathryn Barger called “very sobering” at a hearing Wednesday.
The county is planning another review in one month, when it will look at final cuts, but county CEO Fesia Davenport wanted to let residents know the impacts from a more than $4 billion sex-abuse settlement, combined with billions in ongoing wildfire costs and declining tax-revenue growth projections spell significant trouble ahead.
There are a number of services in limbo every year that are generally funded in June once officials have received firmer budget numbers from the state, Davenport said at the beginning of her talk.
This year, there’s no such optimism for those programs.
This year’s budget is $47.9 billion in total, which represents a $1.3 billion reduction over the previous year’s. Layoffs were not a part of the discussion yet, but 310 vacant positions were cut, which saved $36.4 million. Another $50 million in savings was found by “cutting supplies, equipment purchases and reducing the scope of some programs,” according to the county’s presentation.
“We use these scarce revenues to fund some selected programs in the recommended budget, much less than we have done in prior years,” she told the board Wednesday, also mentioning departments countywide would be taking a 3% cut. “But given our worsening financial outlook and other variables, we will need to take a look at these programs to make sure that we can still afford to fund them, considering everything else that’s on our plate.”
The specific programs in jeopardy were not listed Wednesday. Davenport described five main goals or tenets the county used, with maintaining the county’s essential services and its credit rating among its priorities, as well as providing fair compensation, and avoiding structural deficits and layoffs.
In the city of Los Angeles, the government is looking at layoffs of approximately 1,600 workers in order to close a $1 billion deficit.
In comparison, the city of Santa Clarita’s budget discussion looked at a “wait-and-see” approach last month for its $344.6 million budget, which represents a 0.7% increase over the previous year. Carrie Lujan, communications manager for the city, confirmed Wednesday that Santa Clarita has never made a layoff due to fiscal constraints.
The county’s projections are awaiting the May Revise from the state next week, which provides firmer projections for the county and state’s financial outlooks, Davenport added.
There also were pressures unique to the county and budget cuts facing governments throughout the state, Davenport said.
The $4.4 billion settlement of decade-sold sexual-abuse accusations from county custody operations due to a recent state law that allowed old claims also required the county to come up with $2 billion from its reserves and the rest to be financed for the next 25 years in bonds, Davenport said.
That settlement was formally approved by the board last week.
Barger’s 5th District has seen a massive impact from wildfires that burned tens of thousands of acres and an environmental crisis at the Chiquita Canyon Landfill expected to have a countywide impact on costs, among other issues.
“I want to thank you for putting this budget together. It’s very sobering, no doubt,” Barger said, “but I think now more than ever, the financial challenges facing the county are substantial and far-reaching but we need to be as transparent as possible, and really do provide the public with a clear understanding of what our budget looks like.”
Another challenge identified was a continued trajectory of declining revenue from L.A. County property tax, which has been exacerbated by billions spent on wildfire relief that might not get reimbursed for “three to five years,” Davenport said.
Discussing the revenue side of the budget, Davenport said the county was looking at a five-year low in property-tax revenue, which was due in part to slowing home sales over the past few years. After seeing nearly 87,000 homes sold in 2021, there were more than 35,000 fewer in 2024, about 1,000 more than the previous year. In 2022-23, property tax revenue amounted to more than $450 million; it’s projected at approximately $233.9 million for 2025-26.
The goal is for the county to have its final changes determined by June 23, ahead of the approval of its budget in September.
“If the state is unclear as to their budgetary posture and how their budgetary posture will impact the county,” Davenport said, then the county would probably have to delay some of its toughest decisions until September. “There are decisions that would need to be made about revenue that we would normally get from the state.”
