$3.7B Budget Approved Amid Debate Over Measure A Spending

The City Council on Sept. 9 approved a $3.7 billion budget for Fiscal Year 2026, balancing the books but reigniting a long-running debate over whether Measure A sales tax dollars are being used as voters were promised.

Approved in 2016, Measure A added a one-cent local sales tax to “maintain 911 emergency response services” and tackle the city’s $2.8 billion backlog in infrastructure repairs. Voters extended the tax in 2020 with the assurance of oversight by a five-member Transactions and Use Tax Citizens’ Advisory Committee.

At its Aug. 27 meeting, the committee voted 2-1 to urge the council to return Measure A “primarily [to] improving infrastructure” and to ensure funds cover incremental police and fire positions, not existing payroll. The panel’s letter highlighted a sharp shift over the past decade:

• In the first year of Measure A (2017), 72% of the funds went to infrastructure and 26% to police and fire positions.

• By FY 2025, those proportions had flipped, with only 20% directed to infrastructure and 65% covering police and fire wages.

• For FY 2026, the adopted budget projects just 14.7% for infrastructure and 77.1% for police and fire wages.

“This is not the intent of Measure A as it was presented to the community in promotional campaign literature,” the committee wrote. “The promotion was to pay for additional positions, not 10% of public safety wages.”

City Manager Tom Modica defended the allocations in a memo attached to the committee’s letter. He reminded councilmembers that “maintenance of – not merely additions to – public safety was a key allowable and intended use of Measure A.” Without that support, he said, “the city would today have 110 fewer police officers and the equivalent of three fewer fire engines and one fewer paramedic rescue ambulance.”

While the council’s unanimous Sept. 9 budget adoption leaves Measure A allocations largely unchanged, the committee’s recommendations – including calls for updated infrastructure assessments and annual progress reports – now sit before the mayor and council.

The clash highlights a tension built into Measure A since its passage: whether the tax should primarily be an infrastructure lifeline or a funding backstop for public safety payroll. For now, the numbers show public safety winning out – while streets, sidewalks, alleys, and storm drains continue to wait.

Stephen Downing is a resident of Long Beach and a retired LAPD deputy chief.