{"id":383509,"date":"2026-07-02T12:24:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T12:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/383509\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T12:24:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T12:24:07","slug":"long-beach-will-soon-start-planning-budget-cuts-heres-how-you-can-weigh-in-long-beach-post-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/383509\/","title":{"rendered":"Long Beach will soon start planning budget cuts; here\u2019s how you can weigh in \u2022 Long Beach Post News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Get out your calculators, Long Beach. It\u2019s budget season, and you have an opportunity to weigh in on how your tax dollars should be spent. Your voice could be especially important this year as the City Council decides how to close a multi-million dollar deficit<\/a> that top administrators say will force the first round of serious cuts in years.<\/p>\n

The city on Wednesday released its schedule for adopting the 2027 budget, and it includes five community meetings where you can get up to speed and give feedback.<\/p>\n

Wednesday, Aug. 5, 6\u20137:30 p.m. \u2014 Virtual (Zoom)<\/p>\n

Thursday, Aug. 6, 6\u20137:30 p.m. \u2014 Charles Lindbergh Middle School Auditorium, 1022 E. Market St.<\/p>\n

Saturday, Aug. 8, 10\u201311:30 a.m. \u2014 Silverado Park Community Center, 1545 W. 31st St.<\/p>\n

Monday, Aug. 10, 6\u20137:30 p.m. \u2014 Renaissance High School for the Arts Auditorium, 235 E. 8th St.<\/p>\n

Thursday, Aug. 13, 6\u20137:30 p.m. \u2014 Long Beach City College, Liberal Arts Campus, Room T1200, 4902 E. Carson St.<\/p>\n

How the budget works<\/p>\n

The budget is one of local government\u2019s most central documents, adopted each September, in which the city projects how much it will spend in the coming year on day-to-day services like policing, firefighting, garbage collection and street lighting, and how it will raise money to pay for them.<\/p>\n

Budgets must be balanced \u2014 the city cannot spend a dollar unless it has identified a way to bring one in. To cover any deficit, officials must raise revenue, cut expenses or draw from reserves.<\/p>\n

The city charter requires that the mayor release his proposed budget by Aug. 2, though it\u2019s expected he will release it on July 30; City Manager Tom Modica will formally present the plan to the City Council on Aug. 4\u00a0 and council members are expected to adopt the budget on Sept. 8.<\/p>\n

Throughout those 40 days, officials and the public will deliberate \u2014 or scrutinize \u2014 the plan in a series of hearings and listening sessions, inviting department leaders one at a time to make their pitch on what they want and coming out with a final plan on how best to spend a limited amount of money.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the schedule for all those hearings:<\/p>\n

July 28 \u2014 Budget Oversight Committee, 1 p.m.<\/p>\n

Aug. 4 \u2014 Budget Oversight Committee, 1 p.m.<\/p>\n

Aug. 4 \u2014 Budget Hearing, 5 p.m.: City Manager\u2019s Proposed FY 27 Budget; Human Resources<\/p>\n

Aug. 11 \u2014 Budget Oversight Committee, 1 p.m.<\/p>\n

Aug. 11 \u2014 Budget Hearing, 5 p.m.: Police; Fire<\/p>\n

Aug. 17 \u2014 Budget Oversight Committee (public comment only), 5:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

Aug. 18 \u2014 Budget Oversight Committee, 1 p.m.<\/p>\n

Aug. 18 \u2014 Budget Hearing, 5 p.m.: Health and Human Services; Community Development<\/p>\n

Aug. 25 \u2014 Budget Oversight Committee, 1 p.m.<\/p>\n

Aug. 25 \u2014 Budget Hearing, 3 p.m.: Parks, Recreation and Marine; Library, Arts and Culture<\/p>\n

Sept. 1 \u2014 Budget Oversight Committee, 1 p.m.<\/p>\n

Sept. 1 \u2014 Budget Hearing, 5 p.m.: Public Works; Proposed Capital Improvement Plan<\/p>\n

Sept. 8 \u2014 Budget Oversight Committee, 1 p.m.<\/p>\n

Sept. 8 \u2014 Budget Hearing, 5 p.m.: Budget Adoption<\/p>\n

There will be agendas and live-stream links posted here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s at stake this year<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a rougher-than-usual time for the city, which last year relied on reserved cash to even out a $40 million deficit. At a City Council meeting in April, the city manager said it\u2019s \u201cgoing to be a difficult year\u201d and that the shortfall \u201cis going to require general fund service reductions\u201d \u2014 the first cuts of that scale since the pandemic.<\/p>\n

Reductions, he said, are almost inevitable in 2027, and the council will need to hear out and come to an agreement on what should be cut to return to solvency. Officials projected a $61.3 million deficit this spring, driven by a steep drop in sales, property and utility tax revenue along with flat or diminished state and federal grants. Separately, the city faces pressure from rising payroll costs tied to workplace injuries, sizable liability payouts, and damage and vandalism to public property.<\/p>\n

Last year, the city approved a $3.7 billion budget, most of which must go towards specific needs and cannot be used freely. Instead, the bulk of the annual jockeying centers on the city\u2019s $760 million general fund.<\/p>\n

More information on the budget process and community meetings is available here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Get out your calculators, Long Beach. It\u2019s budget season, and you have an opportunity to weigh in on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":383510,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-383509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=383509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}