The Long Beach City Council finalized the City’s 2025 budget Tuesday night, divvying up more than $4.7 billion for various City departments and services.
Long Beach offices, departments and commissions have been presenting their estimated revenues and needs to the council for the past two months.
Per usual, police and parks are receiving most of the newly allocated funds, which is roughly $3.6 million. A large portion of this budget ($1.12 million) is carryover funds from 2024 in the form of grants and ongoing projects the City already committed money to as of May 31.
Residents can read through the more than 500-page budget here.
Though a bulk of the budget is rolled-over funds, Long Beach has announced that it’s facing a projected $28 million budget deficit. This is mostly due to shrinking oil revenue funds and the cost of oil well abandonment and plugging, which is estimated at $80 million by 2035.
Long Beach is also one of many cities that is losing its Recovery Act funds, which was money from the federal government to help communities recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. Along with several youth and community programs, this has resulted in an underfunded Health Department and the loss of nearly 50 healthcare employees. Richardson acknowledged that a Health Department mostly funded through grants is “unsustainable.”
Over 50 residents spoke at the meeting Tuesday, most of which were there to support the City’s $1.1 million allocation to the Long Beach Justice Fund. The fund provides legal representation to immigrants facing deportation in Long Beach. Local organization ÓRALE (Organizing Rooted in Abolition, Liberation, and Empowerment) also asked the City to create structural funding for the budget, since as of now the program is supported in one-time funds.
Another item residents came to support was the Tenants Right to Counsel, which provides legal aid and advice to renters in the city. Long Beach allocated $1.2 million in one-time funds towards this program for 2025.
Long Beach’s $3.6 billion budget was broken down into 22 City departments/offices, from largest to smallest allocations, as follows:
- Financial Management Department: $786.48 million
- Public Works: $382.41 million
- Police Department: $338.08 million
- Health Department: $201.17 million
- Fire Department: $189.71 million
- Energy Resources Department: $101.24 million
- Technology and Innovation Department: $87.79 million
- Parks, Recreation and Marine Department: $85.33 million
- Community Development: $77.17 million
- Airport Services: $63.19 million
- Human Resources Department: $44.52 million
- Economic Development: $29.02 million
- City Manager’s Office: $24.97 million
- Library, Arts and Culture Department: $21.61 million
- Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Communications: $16.62 million
- City Attorney’s Office: $11.02 million
- Mayor and City Council: $8.93 million
- City Prosecutor’s Office: $8 million
- City Clerk’s Office: $5.07 million
- Civil Service Department: $4.35 million
- City Auditor’s Office: $3.84 million
- Police Oversight: $1.8 million
The Financial Management funds include money the City already has allocated due to loan agreements.
Another $1.14 billion is set aside for the Harbor and Public Utilities Departments:
- Harbor Fund Group: $761 million
- Water Fund Group: $180 million
- Sewer Fund Group: $32 million
- Gas Fund Group: $164 million
Budgets for the harbor and utilities were adopted by the Harbor Department and the Board of Public Utilities in June, and approved by the council Tuesday night.
Roughly half, or $1.6 billion, of the budget is from estimated tax revenue, according to the City Ordinance.
Mayor Rex Richardson’s priorities for the budget, he said, were improving City services, economic growth, providing residents with opportunities and creating a climate-friendly environment.
City Services
Services receiving a focus in the 2025 budget include fire, police, homelessness prevention, street repairs and crime prevention. This section includes Richardson’s Elevate ‘28 plan, which is $758 million meant to prepare Long Beach to host the 2028 Olympics. The plan lays out investments in transportation and infrastructure such as ADA curb ramps, bikeways, traffic safety enhancements, and improvements to bridges, alleys, murals, signage and buildings.
The main departments affected by these investments include the Fire Department, Police Department and Public Works.
Some highlights include:
- $4.8 million for fire station enhancements, increasing arson investigations and improving ambulance response times.
- $1.3 million for a Long Beach Police Department (LBPD) crime prevention unit focused on taking illegal guns off the streets, apprehending known suspects and supporting safety measures at public libraries.
- $400,000 towards improving neighborhood lighting, tree trimming, adding landscape and street furniture and other environmental designs.
- $100,000 toward the S.T.R.O.N.G. Beach Initiative and Advancing Peace Neighborhood Activation Program
- $50,000 to support public education of hate speech and hate crime awareness, prevention and responses.
- $14.7 million toward the City’s organic waste collection program
- $1.15 million toward the Youth Fund
- $50,000 for a citywide youth visual arts contest and expanding arts equity
- $25,000 for veteran outreach and education efforts of the Veteran Affairs Commission
- $44 million for transportation and mobility infrastructure
Economic Growth
This section of the budget is focused on increasing revenue to make up for the projected $80 million deficit in oil. The City Council identified multiple sectors in its Grow Long Beach initiative to invest in such as small businesses, tourism, technology and development.
Departments involved in these initiatives include the Economic Development Department, Community Development and the City Manager’s Department.
Highlights include:
- $1.1 million in developing a Signature Projects Division with five new city planners focused on redeveloping the Queen Mary Island, Pier H, the Long Beach Convention Center and Elephant Lot, Shoreline Drive and Alamitos Bay.
- $1.04 million to establish a Revenue Innovation, Strategy, and Enhancement (RISE) Division in the Economic Development Department to manage the Queen Mary, Convention Center, Catalina Landing, Shoreline Marina, Alamitos Bay, the beach boardwalk and other Tidelands properties.
- $300,000 towards marketing, tourism and advertising efforts
- $210,000 support international diplomacy efforts
- $150,000 to develop an Entertainment Strategic Plan related to the anticipated outdoor amphitheater, the Long Beach Terrace Theater and other music-hosting sites.
- $100,000 for programming through the Long Beach Historical Society to archive Long Beach’s role in the 2028 Olympics
- $250,000 towards various Business Improvement Districts
- $250,000 toward the Level Up LB: Extreme Small Business Makeover Program
A full breakdown of the Elevate ‘28 Plan can be found here.
Creating Opportunities for Residents
Through workforces and service corps that prioritize residents, Long Beach hopes to give its community opportunities to thrive within the city. Efforts to modernize its hiring system, which has been a contentious issue over the past year, is also receiving funding in 2025.
Long Beach hopes to revamp its workforce development board, the Pacific Gateway Workforce Innovation Network, to connect residents to jobs in its growing sectors of aerospace and aviation. The mayor requested a name change to this network to the Long Beach Workforce Innovation Network.
The City prioritized finding funding for certain programs that were created by Long Beach Recovery Act dollars, such as the Immigrant Justice Fund, the First-Time Homebuyer Program, City Employee-Youth Mentoring programs and its language access efforts.
Some highlights include:
- $100,000 to create an Economic Inclusion Action Plan
- $250,000 to provide child care tuition assistance and outreach for mothers seeking to reenter the workforce
- $250,000 in the Employee Benefit Fund to launch a two-year Public Service Student Debt Relief Pilot Program
- $40,000 to hire two full-time fellows through the FUSE Executive Fellowship Program to provide technical expertise and expand homeownership and financial assistance programs
Environmental Efforts
Long Beach has set aside $13 million to improve its already existing parks and nature centers and even more to expand green spaces. This part of the budget also focuses on climate mitigation efforts through recycling, planting trees, and $4.8 million investing in more sustainable transportation.
Highlights include:
- $2 million in sustainability enhancements at Hamilton Loop ($300,000), 51st Street Greenbelt ($1 million) and Martin Luther King, Jr. Park ($700,000).
- $1.8 million to install a trash interceptor barge in the Los Angeles River to improve water quality throughout Alamitos Bay and the Long Beach coastline.
- $1 million in grant-matching funds towards designing the Green Terminal Island Freeway project in West Long Beach.
- $900,000 towards “greening” initiatives on Santa Fe Boulevard.
- $3 million for water quality enhancements at Alamitos Bay, an open channel restoration at Colorado Lagoon and citywide storm drain improvements to better manage stormwater.
- $85,000 to expand Long Beach’s urban canopy with the goal to reach 100,000 trees by 2026.
- $1 million to extend the Long Beach Circuit contract and expand to a third zone.