Cato Hernández
has scoured through tons of archives to understand how our region became the way it is today.
Published April 29, 2024 5:00 AM
The city of L.A.’s budget process is underway. Mayor Karen Bass' proposed budget currently stands at $12.8 billion.
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Andy Jacobsohn
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AFP via Getty Images
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Topline:
The city of L.A. is in the midst of its financial season as hearings for the mayor’s budget begin Tuesday. The final decisions will have a big impact on L.A.’s future. To help you understand the process, we’ve created a guide to understand how to read the budget documents and where to look up spending details for issues you’re interested in.
What does the budget cover? The overall budget is the way city leaders know what they can spend for the next year — it’s a forward-looking plan. The L.A. city budget covers a majority of the city’s departments, but there are a few that set their own budgets separately. (Confusing, right?)
Where should I start reading? The
mayor’s budget summary
is a helpful entry point. It’s written in a way that’s more digestible to the public and it focuses on key city issues.
This week, Los Angeles city council members will kick off a series of public hearings about the city’s
$12.8 billion budget proposal
.
The budget is essential for city operations and decisions made over the next few weeks will have a big impact on L.A.
Public budget hearings begin Tuesday at City Hall in Downtown L.A. The documents and discussions, which give you a peek into how the city’s planning for the future, are incredibly dense.
To make sense of it all — and to explain what the budget means for you — we’ve compiled this guide to understanding the budget.
What the budget covers
The overall budget is the way city leaders know what they can spend for the next year, which is mostly determined by the projected health of our funds. As my colleague Brianna Lee
recently explained
, the mayor proposes the budget and then a series of hearings take place to discuss the details and issue recommendations. Then the budget will go on to the full City Council for a vote.
The budget is made of multiple funds. Here are the main categories:
The General Fund: This is the primary bank account that L.A. works out of. Unrestricted money is put into it, and it’s used to pay for a wide variety of services.
The Reserve Fund: This is where unrestricted cash is set aside for unexpected needs and emergencies, like a savings account.
The Budget Stabilization Fund:This is where cash from prosperous years is set aside to help offset lean financial years.
Special funds: These are funds created for a special purpose and the money in them is restricted to that. An example is the special gas tax fund, which can only be used for our streets system. L.A. has more than 600 special purpose funds.
Former city controller Ron Galperin said to think of these funds like a trip to the grocery store where you have to pay separately for most of what’s in your basket.
Where do I find the budget documents?
They’re publicly listed at
this link on the City Administrative Officer’s website
under the 2024-2025 section. You’ll see the proposed budget at the top, as well as current and previous year’s budgets further down the page.
“You can only use one account to buy tomatoes, and you can only use another account to buy cucumbers, and yet another account to buy your milk,” Galperin said. “Imagine how complicated that would be to just get out of the checkout line.”
Beyond these categories, things get a bit more complicated.
There are three entities that you’ll see listed on the city’s budget as an FYI, but their budgets are independent and get approved by a commission. Those are the department of water and power, the harbor, and L.A. World Airports (which includes LAX).
Chief deputy controller Rick Cole said certain other department budgets, like the library, are sheltered under the city’s
charter
from overall budget cuts. They’re still subject to City Council approval as more of a formality.
These financials are included in the mayor’s budget but in a different chapter than the rest of the proposed department budgets.
How the budget is calculated
Where your tax dollars go (and don’t go) each year can tell you where city leaders’ priorities are, but money is also a finite resource that has to be balanced against competing needs.
The city of L.A. uses a “modified program budget” system to make calculations. In simple terms, this means factoring in service needs for different departments, historical reviews of their past budgets, and performance metrics.
If you want to know how a department is measuring up to its goals,
the budget documents
include metrics that can help you compare programs and evaluate progress.
Where to begin exploring the budget
Jacky Guerrero is the director of equity in community investments for the nonprofit Catalyst California in L.A. She works to make the city’s budget process and documents easy to understand for community organizations.
The mayor’s proposed budget is comprised of
these documents
:
Mayor’s budget summary
Proposed budget
Detail of department programs in two volumes (also known as the Blue Book)
Revenue Outlook
Supporting Information
You probably don’t have time to sift through hundreds of pages of financial reports, but that’s OK. The first document may be right up your alley.
What do all the terms mean?
Budget documents are full of finance jargon.
This budget glossary for the state of California
can help you decipher key terms, like the difference between “allocation” and “appropriation.” Mayor Bass’
proposed budget
also includes a glossary in section seven.
“The mayor’s budget summary is … their way of trying to produce a more digestible sense of what is in these very dense documents,” Guerrero said. “It’s more focused on issues that resonate with people, not departments.”
The budget documents are a bit like nesting dolls. The proposed budget is a longer version of the summary. And the Blue Book is a longer version of that and it gets much more technical. Then out of the supporting documents, Guerrero said the revenue outlook is important to look over.
“It is giving you a sense of projections of sales tax revenues [and] how that money is generated,” Guerrero said. “These are actually important details because these are things that we pay into.”
Guerrero said she trains her staff to first look over the table of contents of the budget documents. To understand where to look, it’s a good idea to get comfortable with knowing what’s in there. The Mayor’s Message in the first section can help you get a sense of the city’s priorities. In this case, the 2024-2025 budget focuses a lot on housing.
Then once you have an overview, look at the departments that interest you.
How much can the budget change year to year?
One thing to understand is that city budgets typically don't change quickly. While there have been movements to realign the city’s financial priorities overall, such as investing more into community programs and less into police, you won’t see a big difference year over year.
Check out our guide to
participating in L.A. city’s budget process
, which covers the timeline, when and how you can participate, and what you can do after the budget is approved.
Some of that is by design. The city’s process has a very short turnover. Almost as soon as the budget is put into action, leaders begin planning for the following year. Cole, from the city controller’s office, said this is why they’re advocating for L.A. to move to a two-year budget term.
“The budget process takes 11 months,” Cole said. “So just cranking through the process eats up an enormous amount of time, energy, paper, and angst, which leaves actually very little time to think deeply about how we're spending the money.”
It’s an economic thing too. Making sharp changes to the budget, Cole said, could create tough layoff issues for city staff, which is why changes happen incrementally. The city of L.A. is among the largest employers in L.A. County.
Another thing to consider is that while the budget documents were only made public in April, the likelihood of them changing much at this stage is rather low. That means public input, and the incoming back-and-forth between the mayor and City Council on finances likely won’t lead to drastic differences in what gets adopted.
But it may not be small peanuts either.
“It’s what insiders at City Hall call budget dust,” Cole said. “For the average person, $750,000 is a lot of money, but it’s less than one hundredth of a percent of the budget. The budget hearings do have an impact — probably the most in the 1% range, but 99% of the budget that the mayor proposes will be adopted.”
The city’s first budget hearing begins on Tuesday at 1 p.m. If you’re interested in participating, note that there’s only one official opportunity listed for
in-person public comment during the May 1 hearing
.
The federal government is reopening. But after 43 days on pause, things may not return to business as usual right away.
Where things stand: The longest government shutdown in U.S. history is officially over after President Donald Trump signed a bill passed by Congress last night.
But... some impacts could continue much longer than six weeks, whether that's national parks trying to make up for lost visitor revenue or taxpayers waiting longer for refunds from a backlogged Internal Revenue Service (IRS). There's also the looming threat of another potential shutdown in the not-too-distant future, since this bill only funds the government through Jan. 30.
The federal government is reopening. But after 43 days on pause, things may not return to business as usual right away. For instance, federal workers are still awaiting backpay and air travel disruptions are expected to linger.
And some impacts could continue much longer than six weeks, whether that's national parks trying to make up for lost visitor revenue or taxpayers waiting longer for refunds from a backlogged Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
There's also the looming threat of another potential shutdown in the not-too-distant future, since this bill only funds the government through Jan. 30.
Here's a look at where things stand for now.
Keep scrolling for updates, and jump by category here:
Federal employees return to work, awaiting back pay
Roughly 1.4 million federal workers have gone without pay for six weeks. Roughly half of them were required to keep working without paychecks, while hundreds of thousands of others were furloughed.
Russ Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, told agency heads to direct furloughed employees to return to work Thursday.
"Agencies should take all necessary steps to ensure that offices reopen in a prompt and orderly manner" on Thursday, Vought wrote in a
Wednesday memo
.
The timing of backpay is a different question.
After the government shutdown ending in January 2019 — then the longest in history — Congress
passed a law
ensuring back pay for federal workers "at the earliest date possible after the lapse in appropriations ends, regardless of scheduled pay dates."
But Trump appeared to
suggest otherwise
in public comments last month, leaving many feds worried.
The bill that Congress passed to end the shutdown guarantees back pay. It also reverses several agencies' attempted staffing reductions during the shutdown, which were
paused by a federal judge
, and prevents additional layoffs of federal employees through January.
Shaun Southworth, a federal employment attorney, said in an
Instagram video
that the timing of backpay will vary by agency based on their payroll providers, but most employees should start seeing deposits within days.
"Many employees historically saw deposits within the first business days after reopening," he says of the last shutdown. "A minority may roll to the next cycle if the system needs extra processing."
SNAP is back
The bill Congress passed to reopen the government funds the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) through September 2026.
The program, which some
42 million Americans rely on
for food assistance, has been the subject of much uncertainty — and an escalating legal battle — in recent weeks. The Trump administration said last month that it would suspend SNAP funding in November due to the shutdown, prompting a wide outcry and a series of legal challenges.
While the administration initially said it would comply with two rulings requiring it to provide at least partial funding for SNAP in November, it balked — and ultimately appealed to the Supreme Court — after one of those judges said it must fund the program fully for the month. The Supreme Court paused that order (and
extended that pause again
on Tuesday, with the end of the shutdown in sight).
At this point, beneficiaries in some states have gotten their full monthly allocations, while others have gotten partial payments or nothing at all. Reopening the government means restarting SNAP, but it's not clear how quickly full payments will resume, since that varies by state. And, as
NPR has reported
, many who rely on the program are worried that benefits could be cut again.
Smithsonian institutions will reopen on a rolling basis
The Smithsonian, which encompasses 21 museums and the National Zoo, says its reopening will be gradual.
Its
website says
the National Museum of American History, as well as the National Air and Space Museum and its Virginia annex, the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, will open their doors on Friday.
All other museums and the zoo — including its beloved
live animal cams
— will reopen to the public "on a rolling basis" by Monday.
This is a live story that will be updated throughout the day as we learn more.
Destiny Torres
is LAist's general assignment and digital equity reporter.
Published November 13, 2025 5:00 AM
L.A. Metro staff at the North Hollywood B Line Station.
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L.A. Metro
)
Topline:
Metro riders once again will have to tap to enter and exit the North Hollywood and Union stations
starting Monday
. The agency says the program will also expand to include the A Line’s Pomona North Station.
Why now? Metro reported that 86% of surveyed riders felt safer because of the feature at the North Hollywood station last year. The agency also says reports in the
Transit Watch app
, which tracks crime and other issues, dropped by more than 40% on the B Line.
How it works: When you tap when hopping on transit, your fare is deducted — tapping out confirms your charge. But if you didn’t pay your fare at the beginning of your trip, you will be charged when you tap out.
“You are expected to pay fare when entering the system and you could be warned, cited or removed from the system for failure to pay fare when entering,” according to Metro.
Where else is the program operating at? The program has been ongoing at the E Line’s Downtown Santa Monica Station.
This isn’t new: Metro launched the pilot program last year in an effort to crack down on fare evasion and improve safety. The agency says the feature is common for other major transit systems, including BART in San Francisco.
See artists like John Mooney at Venice Open Studios.
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John Mooney
/
Venice Open Studios
)
In this edition:
Benny Boy Brewery wants YOU to crush apples. Plus, Venice Open Studios and Baratunde Thurston in Long Beach.
Highlights:
CONGRESS invites the audience to participate in a salon-style environment, creating a conversation that bridges genres and builds community through movement. Eight choreographers come together at the event to “create a unique piece showcasing both LA’s rising stars and established creative voices.”
Bring a non-perishable food item and your dancing energy for a free hip-hop and R&B DJ set from Yaya Bey, who’s performing an intimate show to support Feed the Streets.
Take a peek inside many of the artist studios in one of the city’s most artsy neighborhoods, Venice, at Venice Open Studios. Learn about the beachside community’s art-centric history and visit artist spaces to learn more about the creative processes behind the work of locals.
Comedian and host Baratunde Thurston (The Daily Show, America Outdoors) brings his take on the future, AI and more to the Carpenter Center in Long Beach for an evening of laughs and community as part of the venue’s Wit & Wisdom series.
And celebrate all things cider at Benny Boy Brewing’s 4th annual Applefest Fall Festival — including actually crushing the apples.
There are some really special music events this weekend. Miguel is playing a set at The Broad on Saturday afternoon, and Patti Smith is rocking through her landmark album Horses on its 50th anniversary at Walt Disney Concert Hall. Plus, Tyler, the Creator’s sold-out Camp Flog Gnaw is happening all weekend long at Dodger Stadium.
Licorice Pizza
has even more music listings for you.
Saturday, November 15, 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. Yaya Bey The Airliner 2419 N. Broadway, Lincoln Heights COST: FREE; MORE INFO
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Ra.co
)
Bring a non-perishable food item and your dancing energy for a free hip-hop and R&B DJ set from Yaya Bey, who’s performing an intimate show to support Feed the Streets. Do some good to support those in our community struggling with SNAP benefit cuts and have some fun — a double win.
Friday, November 14, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Innovation Social: Rhythmic Wave I: A Journey to 5054 Dorothy Chandler Pavilion Music Center 135 N. Grand Ave., Downtown L.A. COST: FREE WITH RSVP; MORE INFO
Dance meets immersive technology meets Afrofuturism in Rhythmic Wave I: A Journey to 5054, a performance from Faith “Aya” Umoh. Umoh, who won last year’s MIT XR Grand Prize, is also a Royal Shakespeare fellow who blends her theater and dance experience with motion capture, ancestral Nigerian dance, and AI. She’ll be performing (for free!) at this latest iteration of the Music Center’s Innovation Social series.
Friday, November 14 to Sunday, November 16 CONGRESS Vol. XII L.A. Dance Project 2245 E. Washington Blvd., Downtown L.A. COST: FROM $55; MORE INFO
More dance! CONGRESS invites the audience to participate in a salon-style environment, creating a conversation that bridges genres and builds community through movement. Eight choreographers come together at the event to “create a unique piece showcasing both L.A.'s rising stars and established creative voices.”
November 15 to 23, 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. nightly Mountains of the Moon 1600 Lincoln Blvd., Santa Monica COST: $10; MORE INFO
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Jay Blakesberg
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Outside PR
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Calling all Deadheads, flower children and tie-dye enthusiasts — and I mean all that in the best possible way. Artist, skier and filmmaker Chris Benchetler is launching Mountains of the Moon, an immersive experience set to the music of the Grateful Dead. The week-long premiere event, in partnership with Arc’teryx, includes the film itself and background on how it was made.
Saturday, November 15, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Grandma’s House Hollywood, exact location upon RSVP COST: FREE; MORE INFO
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1Community
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Grandmas are the best. Enter this unique experience — part museum, part culinary adventure, all heart — which takes you into the homes of several real-life and much-admired L.A. grandmas. The team behind the Netflix film Nonnas has created a series of themed rooms curated by the women who share their stories, recipes and keepsakes in this walk-through experience. The grandmothers featured are:
Fran Jemmott
, co-founder of the California Black Women's Health Project;
Odilia Romero
, a pivotal figure in advocacy for Indigenous migrant communities; and Pauline Bunt, a doting grandmother of four with Sicilian and Neapolitan Calabrian roots. The experience also includes bites from Komal chef Fatima Juarez, sharing the flavors of her native Mexico City.
Sunday, November 16, 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. Venice Open Studios 2025 Multiple locations in Venice COST: FREE; MORE INFO
Take a peek inside many of the artist studios in one of the city’s most artsy neighborhoods: Venice. Learn about the beachside community’s art-centric history and visit artist spaces to learn more about the creative processes behind the work of locals like William Attaway (who did the shell mosaics on the Boardwalk) and Alejandro Gehry, and visit local favorite spots like Sunset Avenue gallery Arcane Space.
Saturday, November 15, 8 p.m. An Evening With Baratunde Thurston Carpenter Center 6200 E. Atherton Street, Long Beach COST: FROM $33.75; MORE INFO
Baratunde is coming to Long Beach.
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Mathieu Young
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Carpenter Arts
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Comedian and host Baratunde Thurston (The Daily Show, America Outdoors) brings his take on the future, AI and more to the Carpenter Center in Long Beach. It’s part of the venue’s Wit & Wisdom series, and promises to be an evening of laughs and community.
Through January 10, 2026 Opening reception: Saturday, November 15, 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Perspective and Plane Louis Stern Fine Arts 9002 Melrose Ave., West Hollywood COST: FREE; MORE INFO
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Courtesy Louis Stern Fine Arts
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Perspective and Plane is a group exhibition pairing works by Louis Stern Gallery artists with those of artists from a different era, encouraging the viewer to reflect on the relationship between past and present. The show includes paintings, photography and sculptures by artists like Lorser Feitelson, Helen Lundeberg, Karl Benjamin and Alfredo Ramos Martínez, as well as contemporary artists like James Little, Mark Leonard, Mokha Laget and Cecilia Z. Miguez.
Outdoor Pick
Saturday, November 15, 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Native Bees with Krystle Hickman Los Angeles County Arboretum 301 North Baldwin Ave., Arcadia COST: $20; MORE INFO
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Aaron Burden
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Unsplash
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National Geographic Explorer and community scientist Krystle Hickman leads a conversation about one of our most precious natural resources — bees — at the Arboretum. Her work centers on native bees and the ecosystems they call home.
Viewing Pick
Sunday, November 16, 5 p.m. Organist Roger Sayer: Interstellar in Concert First Congregational Church of Los Angeles 40 South Commonwealth Ave., Rampart Village COST: $33.85; MORE INFO
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Paramount Pictures
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Facebook
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While this is more of a listening pick than a viewing pick, I hope you’ll forgive the loose interpretation. The magic of the music of Interstellar, Christopher Nolan’s 2015 epic space adventure, was a collaboration between Hans Zimmer and organist Roger Sayer, who is performing pieces from the soundtrack at the First Congregational Church. Those acoustics! Get it! The concert also includes additional space-themed pieces, like the opening theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey and selections from The Planets by Gustav Holst. The concert *does* include a short documentary about the creation of the Interstellar soundtrack, followed by an audience Q&A.
Dine & Drink Deals
Saturday and Sunday, November 15 and 16 Benny Boy Brewing’s 4th Annual Applefest Fall Festival 1821 Daly Street, Downtown L.A. COST: FREE; MORE INFO
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Benny Boy Brewing
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Celebrate all things cider at Benny Boy Brewing’s 4th annual Applefest Fall Festival — including actually crushing the apples. Get hands-on in the harvest and help sort, crush and press apples on Benny Boy’s old-fashioned rack and cloth press to make a community cider. Nearly 500 volunteers have collectively crushed and pressed 3 tons of apples at the annual event!
Saturday, November 15, 11 a.m. 3 p.m. Joimo Kombucha 'Sips of Pure Joy' Tasting Event 1375 E. 15th Street, Arts District COST: FREE; MORE INFO
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Joimo Kombucha
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More fermentation is on the menu at Joimo Kombucha. Get a tour of the fermentation room, learn about the brewing process, and try free tastings of the pungent, sparkly, probiotic brew.
Cato Hernández
explores tangible ways people can make an impact on their lives and neighborhood.
Published November 13, 2025 5:00 AM
Baby lettuce grows in a hydroponic tower in Santa Barbara.
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George Rose
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Getty Images
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Topline:
The L.A. City Council has approved funding for a project that will teach San Fernando Valley residents how to build and run a hydroponic system to grow food indoors and outdoors.
The details: Mid Valley Family YMCA will teach residents in Mission Hills, Panorama City and North Hills about hydroponic gardening, a process whereby plants grow in water instead of soil. The program will cover skills to build your own system and best practices for planting.
The money: The nonprofit will get nearly $390,000 to run the program. The money comes from funds already set aside for L.A. REPAIR, the city’s participatory budget program, which asked Angelenos in 2023 to vote on how to spend a pot of money. The designated neighborhoods are part of the Valley’s
L.A. REPAIR Zone,
designated neighborhoods impacted by structural and historic racism.
The backstory: Mid Valley Family YMCA is stepping in because the original grantee dropped out recently. Another program is the works for urban farming.
