LA County’s $43 Billion Recommended Budget is Unveiled
Spending plan for 2023-24 prioritizes emergency response to homelessness and Care First and Community Investment funding
Los Angeles County’s 2023-24 Recommended Budget—focused on accelerating the emergency response to homelessness now underway and sustaining innovative programs and services launched during the pandemic—will be presented to the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, April 18 by Chief Executive Officer Fesia Davenport.
The $43 billion Recommended Budget represents the first step in the County’s multi-phase annual budget process. If approved by the Board, it will add 514 new positions—many of them in mental health and health services—for a total of 114,106 budgeted positions in the County workforce.
Highlights of the budget include:
- $692 million to mobilize the emergency response to the humanitarian crisis of homelessness with extensive investments in mental health outreach, supportive services, and a wide range of housing programs to increase the supply of affordable housing and move people off the streets and into safe living conditions in collaboration with our city governments.
- $288.3 million for Care First and Community Investment (CFCI, formerly known as Measure J) projects and programs to address racial disparities in the justice system. This fulfills the County’s commitment to allocate a full 10% of its locally generated unrestricted revenues by June 2024 to direct community investments and alternatives to incarceration.
- Nearly $50 million to improve conditions in the jails, and nearly $7 million to support continued Sheriff’s Department reforms, including reestablishing the Office of Constitutional Policing.
“This budget is all about building momentum on key Board priorities while also sustaining our unprecedented pace of innovation during the pandemic, which included the launch of four new departments as well as major initiatives to fight racism and poverty,” CEO Davenport said.
The spending plan reflects a mixed economic outlook, with modest increases in property and sales tax revenues but also uncertainty about the impacts of the State budget deficit, a dramatic slowdown in local real estate transactions that affect property taxes, and an unsettled economic environment overall. These and other County-specific pressures will likely mean that only the most critical new programs or services will be considered for funding later this year.
The Recommended Budget kicks off the County’s months-long budget cycle, which moves next to public hearings in May, followed by budget deliberations in June, and concludes with the approval of the Final Adopted Budget in October.
More information about the County budget, including a library of short, animated explainer videos, can be found at https://ceo.lacounty.gov/
Other Key Resources on the 23-24 Recommended Budget:
PowerPoint
Fact Sheet
Budget Charts
Transmittal Letter
