Long Beach has a $58 million hole in a roughly $4 billion spending plan for the 2026-27 fiscal year, and the proposed way out of it is people, LAist reported.

More than 260 city employees could be laid off. Another 200-plus vacant positions would be deleted outright. Against a workforce of about 6,000, the layoffs alone are roughly 4 percent.

That distinction matters and is worth stating plainly: deleting a vacant position saves money without anyone losing a job. Laying off 260 people is the other thing. This budget does both.

What actually changes

Fire. Engine 14 is proposed for shutdown, and a second engine would be converted to overtime staffing.

Police. Seventeen vacant patrol officer positions are eliminated, along with 18 investigator roles, plus $2.68 million in overtime reductions.

Health. The largest departmental cut, at 79 positions, including eight in the homelessness bureau.

Homeless services. Motel voucher shelter rooms drop from 40 to 15. Rapid rehousing assistance is reduced by 45 households. The mobile outreach center closes.

Libraries. Five branches move to five-day weeks with shortened hours.

Parks. Teen programming at Chavez Park ends and summer swim classes are cancelled.

More than a dozen departments are affected in total.

Why the gap exists

LAist attributes the shortfall to rising personnel costs, soaring legal payouts, a clawback of federal grants and a local economic slowdown that has held down tax revenue.

Underneath that is a structural problem specific to Long Beach: oil. The city takes 8.5 percent of revenue from tidelands oil and gas production. The state takes 42.5 percent and the operator keeps 49 percent, LAist reported in a separate piece, under a split that changed in 1991 from a 1964 formula. City Auditor Laura Doud expects Long Beach to lose about $300 million in oil proceeds over the next decade.

Councilmember Kristina Duggan has argued the city's share should be "between 20% and 30% of the revenue," and framed the alternative bluntly: "What are we going to take away? Are we going to take away our libraries? Are we going to take away our staffing at parks?" Mayor Rex Richardson has said that "doing nothing is not an option for us."

The state's position, so far, is procedural. Assemblyman Josh Lowenthal's office said any discussion of the fund's future "must be well informed, conducted responsibly, and be in the best interests of the entire state."

On the budget itself, Richardson framed the choice as long-term: "Our responsibility today is not only to today's budget, it's to the long-term financial health of our city and to the thousands of employees who depend on a stable and sustainable organization."

How to weigh in

City Council budget hearings begin Tuesday, August 5 at 5 p.m. at City Hall, with department-by-department review continuing over subsequent Tuesdays, per the Signal Tribune. Specific department dates are posted to the city's calendar about a week ahead.

Community budget meetings, 6 to 7:30 p.m. unless noted:

  • Wednesday, Aug. 6, American Gold Star Manor, 3021 N. Gold Star Dr.
  • Thursday, Aug. 7, virtual, advance registration required for the Zoom link
  • Wednesday, Aug. 13, Browning High School, 2120 Obispo Ave.
  • Saturday, Aug. 16, Wardlow Park Community Center, 3457 Stanbridge Ave., 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

Interpretation is offered in Spanish, Khmer, Tagalog and American Sign Language at the in-person meetings.

The city's online budget priorities form closes Thursday, Aug. 21. Budget Oversight Committee meetings run through September 9, and the Council is expected to adopt the final budget in late September.

Nothing above is final until that vote.