The Los Angeles Post

LA County Unveils 2025-26 Recommended Budget Reflecting Unprecedented Financial Challenges

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$47.9 billion spending plan cuts millions in funding and eliminates hundreds of vacant positions—but does not include layoffs

Los Angeles County’s 2025-26 Recommended Budget—which includes spending cuts to help offset extraordinary budgetary pressures, including more than $1 billion in costs related to the January wildfires—will go before the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, April 15.

The budget reflects rapidly mounting financial challenges—including the potential loss of hundreds of millions of dollars or more in federal funding and the tentative $4 billion settlement of thousands of childhood sexual assault claims brought under AB 218. At the same time, the County is facing slower property tax revenue growth due in part to declining home sales amid higher interest rates.

In the face of these pressures, County departments are making 3% cuts in their budgets. These targeted cuts total $88.9 million and include eliminating 310 vacancies and more than $50 million in savings from cutting supplies, delaying equipment purchases and reducing the scope of some programs.

No layoffs are anticipated at this time, but the Recommended Budget—the first phase in the County’s annual budget process—reflects a high degree of caution, restraint and uncertainty in the face of the cascading budgetary pressures.

“We are in uncharted territory with these simultaneous pressures on our budget,” said Chief Executive Officer Fesia Davenport, who will present the proposed spending plan to the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday. “Any of these alone would be daunting, but taken together these challenges—the wildfires, the AB 218 settlement, the threat of deep cuts in federal funding—are cause for great concern.”

Despite the constraints, the balanced budget is committed to sustaining the County’s essential safety net responsibilities and to funding key priorities set by the Board of Supervisors.

This budget reflects the passage of Measure A, the voter-approved ½-cent sales tax that replaced Measure H and which has already started to bring an enhanced stream of funding into the entire LA region—including local cities—to address homelessness.

The nearly $1.1 billion in Measure A revenues in this budget will be shared by the County’s partners in this work, with $382.8 million going to the Los Angeles County Affordable Housing Solutions Agency, $32.1 million to the Los Angeles County Development Authority, $96.3 million to local cities through the Local Solutions Fund and more than $500 million for the County’s own comprehensive homelessness services.

Other funding recommendations include:

  • $287.7 million for Care First and Community Investment (CFCI), reflecting an ongoing commitment to set aside 10% of locally generated unrestricted revenues annually to support the Board’s Care First, Jails Last vision. The total CFCI funding available for investment in communities and alternatives to incarceration is $571.6 million, including one-time unspent funds from previous years.
  • $11.9 million to ramp up to Measure G—the voter-approved measure to remake County government with an expanded Board of Supervisors, an elected executive, and the creation of a new Ethics Commission. The budget allocates funding for the Governance Reform Task Force that will guide Measure G efforts, and also dedicates ongoing funds to support the operations of the Ethics Commission and the Office of Ethics Compliance when they are established in 2026.
  • Various other allocations include funding to improve after-hours safety at County parks, fund the Youth@Work program, expand Alternative Crisis Response, and help victims of Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) fraud. Other highlights are linked below.

The $47.9 billion Recommended Budget represents the first step in the County’s multi-phase annual budget process. If approved by the Board, it will add 14 net new positions for a total of 117,100 budgeted positions in the County workforce.

More information about the County budget, including a library of short, animated explainer videos, can be found at ceo.lacounty.gov/budget.