Los Angeles County faces serious budgetary pressures largely due to the high recovery costs for forest fires last January, which amount to 2 billion dollars.
The County authorities presented an expenses plan for 47.9 billion dollars for fiscal period 2025-2026.
The calculation of fire recovery that swept the communities of Altadena and Palisades, and that left 30 dead, includes one billion dollars in lost income, mainly from property taxes, and one billion dollars to cover soil tests, debris removal and cleaning of beaches and other costs, explained Fesia Davenport, executive director of the County, at a press conference on Monday, according to the newspaper Los Angeles.
The financing proposal will be presented on Tuesday to the Supervisors Board and also contemplates the elimination of 310 vacancies, which would generate savings of more than $ 50 million, according to a statement issued on Monday, and other cuts in a plan that Davenport described as necessary to “compensate for extraordinary budgetary pressures”.
However, the executive director stressed that this does not contemplate dismissals.
The fires are not the only problem facing the county, the most populated in the US, Los Angeles must pay an tentative agreement announced last month of 4 billion dormars related to thousands of complaints of child sexual abuse that were presented under Law AB 218, which allows victims of sexual abuse that occurred in their childhood to submit demands within an extended period.
“Forest fires, the AB 218 agreement (on sexual abuse) and the threat of deep cuts in federal financing, are a reason for great concern,” Davenport added in the brief.
The budget also reflects the approval of the measure A, an increase in the Pentavo medium to the sales tax to address the situation of homeless people, approved by voters last November.
