Long Beach will soon start planning budget cuts. Here’s how you can weigh in

Get out your calculators, Long Beach. It’s budget season, and you have an opportunity to weigh in on how your tax dollars should be spent. Your voice could be especially important this year as the City Council decides how to close a multi-million dollar deficit that top administrators say will force the first round of serious cuts in years.

The city on Wednesday released its schedule for adopting the 2027 budget, and it includes five community meetings where you can get up to speed and give feedback.

• Wednesday, Aug. 5, 6 – 7:30 p.m. — Virtual (Zoom)
• Thursday, Aug. 6, 6 –7:30 p.m. — Charles Lindbergh Middle School Auditorium, 1022 E. Market St.
• Saturday, Aug. 8, 10 –11:30 a.m. — Silverado Park Community Center, 1545 W. 31st St.
• Monday, Aug. 10, 6 – 7:30 p.m. — Renaissance High School for the Arts Auditorium, 235 E. 8th St.
• Thursday, Aug. 13, 6 – 7:30 p.m. — Long Beach City College, Liberal Arts Campus, Room T1200, 4902 E. Carson St.

How the budget works

The budget is one of local government’s most central documents, adopted each September, in which the city projects how much it will spend in the coming year on day-to-day services like policing, firefighting, garbage collection and street lighting, and how it will raise money to pay for them.

Budgets must be balanced — the city cannot spend a dollar unless it has identified a way to bring one in. To cover any deficit, officials must raise revenue, cut expenses or draw from reserves.

The city charter requires that the mayor release his proposed budget by Aug. 2, though it’s expected he will release it on July 30; City Manager Tom Modica will formally present the plan to the City Council on Aug. 4 and council members are expected to adopt the budget on Sept. 8.

Throughout those 40 days, officials and the public will deliberate — or scrutinize — the plan in a series of hearings and listening sessions, inviting department leaders one at a time to make their pitch on what they want and coming out with a final plan on how best to spend a limited amount of money.

Here’s the schedule for all those hearings:

• July 28 — Budget Oversight Committee, 1 p.m.
• Aug. 4 — Budget Oversight Committee, 1 p.m.
• Aug. 4 — Budget Hearing, 5 p.m.: City Manager’s Proposed FY 27 Budget; Human Resources
• Aug. 11 — Budget Oversight Committee, 1 p.m.
• Aug. 11 — Budget Hearing, 5 p.m.: Police; Fire
• Aug. 17 — Budget Oversight Committee (public comment only), 5:30 p.m.
• Aug. 18 — Budget Oversight Committee, 1 p.m.
• Aug. 18 — Budget Hearing, 5 p.m.: Health and Human Services; Community Development
• Aug. 25 — Budget Oversight Committee, 1 p.m.
• Aug. 25 — Budget Hearing, 3 p.m.: Parks, Recreation and Marine; Library, Arts and Culture
• Sept. 1 — Budget Oversight Committee, 1 p.m.
• Sept. 1 — Budget Hearing, 5 p.m.: Public Works; Proposed Capital Improvement Plan
• Sept. 8 — Budget Oversight Committee, 1 p.m.
• Sept. 8 — Budget Hearing, 5 p.m.: Budget Adoption

There will be agendas and live-stream links posted here.

What’s at stake this year

It’s a rougher-than-usual time for the city, which last year relied on reserved cash to even out a $40 million deficit. At a City Council meeting in April, the city manager said it’s “going to be a difficult year” and that the shortfall “is going to require general fund service reductions” — the first cuts of that scale since the pandemic.

Reductions, he said, are almost inevitable in 2027, and the council will need to hear out and come to an agreement on what should be cut to return to solvency. Officials projected a $61.3 million deficit this spring, driven by a steep drop in sales, property and utility tax revenue along with flat or diminished state and federal grants. Separately, the city faces pressure from rising payroll costs tied to workplace injuries, sizable liability payouts, and damage and vandalism to public property.

Last year, the city approved a $3.7 billion budget, most of which must go towards specific needs and cannot be used freely. Instead, the bulk of the annual jockeying centers on the city’s $760 million general fund.

More information on the budget process and community meetings is available here.