Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass on Monday proposed laying off more than 1,600 government workers in an attempt to close a nearly $1 billion budget gap amid a slumping economy while the city contends with the costly job of rebuilding a seaside neighborhood leveled in a January wildfire.
The prospect of chopping hundreds of government jobs comes as the latest unwelcome news for the first-term Democrat, who will stand for reelection next year.
In an address to the city council, Bass called the municipal workforce the “city’s greatest asset” but said cuts were needed as City Hall wrestles with uncertainty in Washington, higher costs for worker salaries and benefits, a slowing economy, and the daunting work of rebuilding the affluent Pacific Palisades community.
“We have a very difficult budget to balance,” Bass said. She called her decision to propose job cuts a “last resort.”
David Green, president of Service Employees International Union, Local 721, which represents over 10,000 city workers, said the union would be looking for new funding sources and other alternatives to slashing jobs.
“We’re not going to allow the out-of-touch bureaucrats … to balance the budget on the backs of city workers,” Green said in a statement.
Late last month, Bass and the city council appealed to Sacramento for nearly $2 billion in disaster recovery aid as the city faces a projected deficit that Bass’ office pegged at nearly $1 billion. She plans to return to Sacramento this week to seek additional state funds that could reduce the proposed layoffs.
The Palisades Fire destroyed more than 6,800 structures and killed at least 12 people.
It’s up to the council to approve the spending blueprint for the fiscal year that begins July 1. No firefighters or sworn police officers would be cut.
Bass’ proposed work force reductions recall the difficult financial stretch of the 2008 recession, when then-Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa ended up chopping thousands of government jobs to keep the books in balance, pushed municipal workers for the first time to pay toward their pensions and health care, and clashed with the teachers union that once employed him.
During the coronavirus pandemic, then-Mayor Eric Garcetti furloughed about 15,000 city workers and offered early retirement packages to others, but avoided outright layoffs at a large scale.
Despite the city’s shaky financial shape, Bass delivered a mostly upbeat speech to the council, noting that crime had dipped, including homicides, and the city was gradually getting homeless individuals off the streets and into housing. She acknowledged the obvious: Though the numbers point to improvement, homeless encampments remain a familiar sight in neighborhoods across the city and more funds are needed for housing.
There is “much further to go,” she said.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com