LA County's New Budget Adds Billions In Spending

The L.A. County Board of Supervisors approved an amended budget for the 2023-24 fiscal year on Tuesday, adding hundreds of positions and more than $3.4 billion in spending. Los Angeles has the largest county budget in the United States, which exceeds that of many states. 

The Board of Supervisors had already approved a $43.3 billion budget in June, but a flood of state and federal dollars, as well as unexpected departmental savings, helped it grow to $46.7 billion.

Jobs

The new budget adds 666 jobs, bringing the total to more than 115,300 budgeted positions for L.A. County.

• 167 positions will go to the Department of Mental Health, most of which will help expand its Homeless Outreach and Mobile Engagement (HOME) teams.
• The Department of Children and Family Services will get 123 new positions. Those jobs will help bring down adoption caseloads for social workers and help support caregivers, foster children and families. 
• 33 positions will be added to the Department of Parks and Recreation to support aquatics and recreation. 
• 30+ positions will be spread out across multiple departments to help move people with specific mental health needs out of jail and into more appropriate settings.
  

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(Right) Garrett Lee, of Department of Mental Health's HOME Team, collaborates with LAHSA’s Homeless Engagement Team during outreach in the targeted COVID-19 testing efforts in the homeless community in April 2020

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Courtesy of Los Angeles County

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Homelessness and housing

The budget includes $870.5 million of Measure H funding, the most ever allocated in a single budget year, according to the county’s Chief Executive Office.

• $30.2 million will go towards Pathway Home. The new program helps move unhoused communities from encampments into hotels and temporary housing. 
• $29.8 million will go towards Safe Landing interim housing and triage programs for people experiencing homelessness.
• $22.5 million will help provide programs, services and supportive housing for transition age youth.
• $19.8 million will help expand Adult Protective Services Home Safe Program for unhoused communities.
• $10.9 million will go towards outreach programs on the LA Metro system. 

Justice and jails

• The Felony Incompetent to Stand Trial (FIST) program will get 29 new positions and $78.8 million in funding. The program moves people who are facing felony charges but found to be incompetent to stand trial out of jail and into community-based settings. 
• $20.1 million will provide free phone calls for inmates in county jails. The county CEO expects this to save families $41 million each year.
• $20 million will go towards hiring incentives for jails. The county is hoping to bring on more clinicians to improve conditions and mental health care. 

Other major changes

• $86.5 million will go towards new mental health and psychiatric beds.
• $55.3 million will go to victims of EBT card theft to replace their stolen benefits.

With fiscal year 2023-24 taken care of, L.A. County could be facing some serious budget challenges in the years ahead. According to the county CEO, it may have to pay more than $3 billion to settle childhood sexual assault claims filed under AB 218. That 2019 state law changed the statute of limitations for child sex abuse survivors and allowed them to file civil suits during a three-year window. That window closed on Jan. 1, 2023.