City Unveils Proposed $3.7B Budget

The City of Long Beach unveiled its Proposed Fiscal Year 2026 (FY 26) Budget. It includes the City Manager’s Proposed Budget, the Mayor’s Recommendations to the City Council and the Proposed FY 26 Capital Improvement Plan (CIP).

The Proposed Budget takes into consideration priorities from the Long Beach City Council and focuses on key areas of investment identified in the Long Beach Strategic Vision 2030, as well as community feedback from residents received during the budget development process earlier this year, among other critical priorities.

With many California cities struggling with financial challenges and broader economic uncertainty, the Proposed FY 26 Budget upholds the city’s commitment to the wellbeing of the community by maintaining core services without major reductions. Since FY 20, the city has successfully navigated financial challenges, using one-time funds made available through the Long Beach Recovery Act to stabilize its fiscal position. These sources are now exhausted and, while the city has worked diligently to avoid increasing the structural shortfall, it is facing a cumulative five-year $60.5 million General Fund shortfall.

Although the city remains confident that future revenues from initiatives like Grow Long Beach and the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games will materialize, the Proposed FY 26 Budget reflects difficult but necessary decisions that must be made today to maintain essential services and financial stability in the future, including revenue generating fee increases, focusing on the preservation of current programs rather than introducing new initiatives, and sustaining core services that residents rely on every day.

The passage of Measure LB by voters helped significantly in avoiding large scale reductions this year.

Long Beach is a full-service city organization and prides itself on providing a variety of resources and services to the community, including the provision and improvement of affordable housing and addressing homelessness; support for economic development and business assistance; the overall continuum of public safety and emergency medical response; maintenance of safe, clean and accessible parks and facilities; and support for and advancements in infrastructure and livability improvements.

The Proposed FY 26 Budget maintains these services and takes action to address the city’s most urgent one-time and structural needs for select service priority areas.

Because one-time funds were minimally available, the FY 26 budget required careful, strategic decision making. Initiatives that departments requested were offset within either reductions where it made sense, or proposed increases to revenue sources.

The Community Budget Book, a condensed version of the proposed budget, is available online at longbeach.gov/fy26.

Engaging community members through public input is an important and valued part of the city’s budget development process. Earlier this year, the city hosted five in-person meetings and one virtual community meeting to offer Long Beach residents an opportunity to provide feedback at an earlier phase of the FY 26 Budget development process. The city will conduct another round of engagement opportunities for the Long Beach community to ask questions regarding the FY 26 Budget and share additional input.

Four in-person community meetings will be held from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the following:

• Wednesday, Aug. 13 – Browning High School, 2120 Obispo Ave.
• Saturday, Aug. 16 – Wardlow Park Community Center, 3457 Stanbridge Ave. This meeting will be held from 10 to 11:30 a.m.
• Monday, Aug. 18 – Michelle Obama Neighborhood Library, 5870 Atlantic Ave.
• Wednesday, Aug. 20 – Billie Jean King Main Library, 200 W. Broadway.

The city’s budget is developed by the Department of Financial Management, which oversees the financial and fleet services operations of the city, including an over $3.7 billion annual budget, serves as a financial adviser to the city manager and City Council, and ensures the city’s timely and accurate financial reporting, full transparency and accountability, and integrity.

Submitted by CLB.