With the City Council’s approval on Thursday, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has passed her first budget, though not without some controversy.
The $13.1 billion budget — 11% more than last year — contains $1.3 billion for combatting homelessness, an investment highlighted by multiple supporters of the budget.
“This budget will make Los Angeles more livable for all. It will allow us to confront the emergency of homelessness with the urgency we need and make innovative investments in bold new methods to make our neighborhoods safer,” Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement.
While the budget received overwhelming support from the council, its largest portion raised concerns from critics, including Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, who cast the only vote against approval.
The Los Angeles Police Department is set to receive $3.2 billion this fiscal year, including funding to replace the 600 or so officers expected to leave or retire and hire 400 new officers on top of that.
Hernandez criticized the decision to put “a quarter of our entire budget into just one department.”
“I don’t believe that the proposal put forward today is responsible budgeting, and I will not go back to my constituents and tell them that $13 billion doesn’t include enough money to deliver the basic municipal services that they deserve and demand,” Hernandez told City News Service.
Hernandez will have another chance to voice her dissent, as the final vote approving the budget will take place next week.