City Council Approves $83.3 Budget with 1.4% Tax Hike

The Long Beach City Council on Tuesday approved an $83.3 million budget for 2013-14, which represents a 1.49 percent property tax increase that will raise the average homeowner’s annual taxes by $43, to about $2,980. The vote was 4-1, with Councilman John McLaughlin casting the lone vote to oppose the spending plan.  

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McLaughlin made a fruitless motion to table the vote for one week, after he called on City Manager Jack Schnirman to try to find further areas to cut spending and reduce the tax increase. The city is required to approve a budget before the end of May.

“I still think we have some time—no,” McLaughlin said when he was called to vote on the budget.

Tuesday’s meeting at City Hall was the second of two budget hearings, the first of which was held May 7, when Councilwoman Eileen Goggin called for reducing the original 2.16 percent tax increase, at $64 an average homeowner, in the earlier budget draft.  

During the budget hearings, Schnirman said that through spending cuts, particularly in the department of public works, the city was able to produce a budget that reduced spending by about $1 million, but without sacrificing essential services or jobs. On Tuesday, McLaughlin said that since the city manager was able to make “drastic cuts” to the budget between the two meetings, he believed he could make additional cost-cutting tweaks.

“Why can’t we take another week and see if we can find another 1.7 percent,” said McLaughlin, who suggested that further cuts might be found in overtime costs in the police and sanitation departments, among other areas.

While Schnirman addressed McLaughlin’s suggestions, noting in part that the police department was at a record-low level of staffing, he said the decision was ultimately in the hands of the council members. But when McLaughlin made a motion to table the vote on the budget for another week, none of the other council members seconded it. Goggin, though, asked Schnirman about the possibility of making further cuts.

“If I felt there was more work to be done, we would have already done it,” Schnirman said.

Fran Adelson, before casting her vote, said about Schnirman and Comptroller Jeff Nogid: “We went back to them, Eileen Goggin asked them to lower the tax rate, and they went back and they worked hard and they lowered it.”  

In addition to the reduction of the property tax to 1.49, Schnirman said the other main amendments to the budget include corrections to contracted salaries to CSEA employees; updated projections for fire department overtime pay, workers compensation premiums, and debt service; and an increase to FEMA reimbursement for Hurricane Sandy-related costs.

“We are now living in a situation where the federal government is going to be picking up 90 percent, as opposed to 75 percent [of reimbursement for the city’s costs related to Hurricane Sandy],” Schnirman said.

The budget was created starting in January, after the hurricane that is estimated to have cost the city more than $200 million in damages. The budget represents a 2 percent decrease from the existing $85.1 spending plan, and a tax levy increase of 2.16, which is under the state’s 2.19 cap. Schnirman said that revenues dropped from sources that include beach and park fees to cause the tax increase.

He also said the budget would help the city pay down a $10.2 million deficit from last year, which now stands at $9.1 million as the city enters the second year of a three-year plan to retired it. The city’s annual budget is from July 1 to June 30.

“The worst of the fiscal crisis is over,” he said. “We’re on a much better trajectory. But we’re still vulnerable until we establish substantial reserves or rainy day funds.”


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