Ignore the other guy. It’s true. The fire chief pointed out several infrastructure deficiencies, meanwhile the Mayor cut the fire budget by over $17 million and raised the police budget.
When the two sides did reach an agreement in November, that money was moved over to the fire department’s pot, according to Mr. Blumenfield’s office, meaning this year’s fire budget is actually $53 million more than last year.
How long was it before the budget got reallocated? And how much had this been going on before?
It sounds like a big part of the issue is that they haven’t been able to do mitigation - controlled burns, etc. If the budget has been slashed for a long time, suddenly dumping some cash in later is going to have a limited effect.
Ignore the other guy. It’s true. The fire chief pointed out several infrastructure deficiencies, meanwhile the Mayor cut the fire budget by over $17 million and raised the police budget.
Yep, see -
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/california-wildfires-los-angeles-fire-chief-budget-cuts/ (archived at https://archive.is/a4IxG)
https://theintercept.com/2025/01/08/la-police-budget-palisades-fires/ (archived at https://archive.is/a4IxG)
Weird way to cut a budget
How long was it before the budget got reallocated? And how much had this been going on before?
It sounds like a big part of the issue is that they haven’t been able to do mitigation - controlled burns, etc. If the budget has been slashed for a long time, suddenly dumping some cash in later is going to have a limited effect.
The budget was increased by 53 million.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/09/us/la-fire-department-budget-bass.html