After much deliberation, the City Council has passed a Fiscal Year ’13 balanced budget. Although all of the cuts to services have not been restored, the community should be proud of the job it has done to influence the decision makers to fund the services that families depend on. Through your work, we were able to restore many services, programs and investments to our city’s infrastructure.
Here are some highlights of the new budget:
• $1.3 million will be used to fully fund after-school and youth programs at park centers, parks, and pools
• $2.3 million went to restore police overtime, a portion of the gang unit, and neighborhood safety liaisons
• the majority of proposed cuts to the El Dorado Nature Center and the Senior Center were restored
• a fully funded police academy is included in this budget to put new and highly trained officers on our streets
• funding was increased to infrastructure projects such as streets and sidewalks
• library funding was restored to reinstate staff
With the help of community members voicing their support to keep vital city staff, programs, and services available to our neighborhoods, we were able to balance the budget. There is still much that needs to be done, and I encourage you to continue to stay involved in our community so we can bring positive change to our city.
Thank you again for your participation in making this process move forward. I’m looking forward to continue the good work to build a better 9th District!
Steven Neal
Long Beach Councilmember
9th District
