Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass just responded to the intense criticism over her cutting the fire department’s budget by $17 million and you won’t be shocked by what she says.
Bass is claiming that her budget cuts of the fire department have no effect on the hellscape situation that’s been unfolding this week.
The reporter immediately fired back that it would be nice if there were more firefighters, but she just ignored him and went on defending her budget cuts.
Her response is preposterous because the hellscape unfolding in Los Angeles tells the real story and one that can’t be denied except by those lying to try and keep their jobs.
Fox Business posted an article yesterday pointing out that the fire department’s budget is just 65% of the city’s budget for Homelessness, which is $1.3 billion. What’s worse is that “analysis by L.A.’s city comptroller last year found that roughly half the budget for homelessness went unspent.”
In other words, $650 million dollars of the budget was never spent and could have been allocated towards the fire department, whose slashed budget is $819 million.
Here’s more from Fox Business:
Los Angeles’ budget is in the spotlight as multiple wildfires rage around the city amid revelations that Mayor Karen Bass slashed the fire department’s budget last year while prioritizing spending on the city’s homeless population.
For the 2023-2024 fiscal year, Los Angeles budgeted $837 million for the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD), which was roughly 65% the size of the homeless budget of $1.3 billion.
An analysis by L.A.’s city comptroller last year found that roughly half the budget for homelessness went unspent.
From the 2023-2024 to the 2024-2025 budgets, the LAFD’s budget was reduced by over $17 million from $837,191,237 to $819,637,423.
Bass had proposed a larger budget cut to the LAFD, about $23 million, but it was not adopted.
FOX Business has reached out to Bass’ office for comment on the reasoning behind the cuts.
The budget for homelessness was also reduced in the 2024-2025 budget, but remained larger than the LAFD budget.