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Long Beach officials weigh significant cuts to services in proposed budget
Firefighters view the wreckage of a twin-engine Beechcraft King Air airplane where it crashed and burned on takeoff from Long Beach, Calif., Airport on March 16, 2011.
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Long Beach officials weigh significant cuts to services in proposed budget
Long Beach officials weigh significant cuts to services in proposed budget
The Long Beach City Council is grappling with a $20 million deficit, and the city needs to make some hard decisions before the fiscal year ends in two months.
The biggest portion of the Long Beach budget goes to pay for police and firefighters. So that’ll likely mean cuts to both. The current proposal, submitted by Mayor Bob Foster, would eliminate 75 positions from the police department and 29 from the firefighting staff. The union that represents firefighters says staffing is at a 30-year low and warns that more cuts would cause life-threatening delays.
City officials emphasize that though police and fire will receive less, they’ll still get the same percentage of the city’s budget.
Any more would force deeper cuts in other city services like parks, libraries, and public works.
In the last eight years Long Beach has slashed nearly $200 million from its budgets, and eliminated 650 city positions. The Budget Oversight Committee will hold the first of three public meetings starting Monday. Council members plan to begin debate on the proposed cuts Monday, and invite public input at each of the city council meetings through mid September.
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