Long Beach residents will have several opportunities to get involved in the city’s process for building its 2027 fiscal year budget starting in late January.

The community meetings will offer residents a chance to share their service priorities and other feedback about how Long Beach’s funds should be allocated as the city works to put together the next budget book.

Long Beach approved its budget for the 2026 fiscal year in September. While the city is facing several long-term financial challenges, including a looming budget deficit and changing revenue streams, the City Council adopted a balanced $3.7 billion book for the year.

When that budget was approved, Long Beach was still facing a $60.5 million general fund deficit through the 2031 fiscal year as economic uncertainty across the country grows – with federal funding potentially at risk, a continued decrease in the city’s oil revenue, rising costs of labor, state budget challenges, tariff impacts and more.

“Public input is an important and valued part of the city’s budget preparation process,” Long Beach said in a Wednesday, Dec. 24, news release.

Here is the schedule for community budget meetings in 2026:

Thursday, Jan. 22: McBride Park Cal Rec Community Center, 1550 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave., 6 p.m.
Saturday, Jan. 24: Silverado Park Community Center, 1545 W. 31st St., 10 a.m.
Wednesday, Jan. 28: Recreation Park Community Center, 4900 E. Seventh St., 6 p.m.
Thursday, Jan. 29: Virtual webinar, 6 p.m. (Advanced registration is required to get the meeting link.)
Monday, Feb. 22: Houghton Park Community Center, 6301 Myrtle Ave., 6 p.m.
Thursday, Feb. 6: Billie Jean King Main Library, 200 W. Broadway, 6 p.m.

Besides the community meetings, Long Beach will also conduct an online survey to collect additional feedback from residents. The survey can be taken online at longbeach.gov/FY27 through Friday, Feb. 6.

Spanish, Khmer, Tagalog and American sign language interpretation will be available for all meetings. The online survey is also available in those languages.

“The community budget meetings and online survey play an integral part in helping the city understand what community members believe the city’s budget priorities should be,” the city said. “Feedback provided at the community meetings and through the survey will be shared with the Long Beach City Council prior to the development of the proposed FY27 budget.”

More information about budget meetings is available at longbeach.gov/FY27.