By Los Angeles County Politics (LACP)
More than 260 Long Beach employees could lose their jobs, with another 200-plus vacant positions eliminated, under a $4 billion budget proposal unveiled Thursday to close a $58 million deficit — the city’s first proposed general fund layoffs in nearly six years.
City Manager Tom Modica’s proposed 2026-27 budget would cut roughly 4% of Long Beach’s nearly 6,000-person workforce, hitting police, fire, libraries and homeless services.
“Developing this budget requires balancing significant fiscal challenges with our responsibility to deliver the essential services residents rely on,” said Modica. “Our proposal closes the City’s structural deficit through a difficult but thoughtful, layered approach that prioritizes operational efficiencies, strategic investments and responsible financial stewardship before reducing services wherever possible.”
Public safety takes a direct hit under the spending plan, with Engine Company 14 — the crew and apparatus based near Colorado Lagoon — entirely eliminated, saving the city $3.8 million a year. According to the Long Beach Post, city data shows the company handles fewer calls than any other engine crew in the city, with the vast majority being medical rather than fire-related.
On the police side, the department would leave 17 vacant patrol positions unfilled, cut roughly $2.7 million from its overtime budget, and shed 18 investigator jobs by merging its financial crimes unit into property crimes. City officials say sworn officers and firefighters displaced by the cuts won’t be laid off outright — they’ll be shifted into other open roles, including a newly created patrol beat along the shoreline.
The Health Department is absorbing an even deeper hit after losing $11 million in combined county, state and federal support: 79 positions would disappear, eight of them within the city’s homelessness bureau. That would mean less weekend street outreach, a reduced medical shuttle program, the loss of one of the city’s two mobile homeless outreach units, and cuts to workforce development services.
The number of motel voucher rooms available for emergency shelter would also shrink from 40 to 15, and 45 fewer households would qualify for rapid rehousing help — even as the city works to keep every existing shelter bed open amid a homeless population that grew 3.7% over the past year.
Everyday city services would feel it too. Five branch libraries — Bayshore, Burnett, El Dorado, Harte and the Michelle Obama Library — would drop to a five-day operating schedule. Teen programs at Chavez Park, summer swim lessons at Jordan and Millikan high schools, and the city’s participation in the after-school WRAP program are all slated for elimination.
Another 25 jobs would be cut by outsourcing parking enforcement, crossing guard staffing and the city’s print shop operations to outside contractors, and drivers would see hourly parking rates citywide climb from $2 to $3, with new meters going in around City Hall, Lincoln Park, the courthouse and Ocean Boulevard.
Mayor Rex Richardson wants to soften several of the cuts, and his recommendations include bringing back 70 of the eliminated positions, paid for with an estimated $7 to $8 million a year in new revenue from voter-approved county Measure ER, an extra $5.9 million from a renegotiated fire-services agreement with the Port of Long Beach, and $1.5 million saved by skipping a November general election since June’s primary already decided every race on the ballot.
“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,” Richardson said. “Our employees deserve to be more than temporary fixes that simply postpone difficult decisions. They deserve a city with a stable financial future. That’s why I believe we have to stay the course.”
Despite the cuts, city officials are projecting another $27.3 million deficit next year but say Long Beach remains on track for its first structural budget surplus in more than a decade by 2028.
The City Council holds its first budget hearing at 5 p.m. tomorrow, Tuesday, Aug. 4 at 5 p.m. in the Civic Chambers at Long Beach City Hall, 411 W. Ocean Blvd., with additional public meetings and study sessions running through late September, when final approval is expected.
