Los Angeles mayor slashed fire budget last year, prioritized homeless population
LA Mayor Karen Bass slashed fire department spending last year
Former LA County sheriff sounds off on California wildfires, budget cuts
Alex Villanueva discusses the local response to devastating California wildfires on 'The Big Money Show.'
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.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass slashed the Los Angeles Fire Department budget by more than $17 million last year. She originally proposed cutting it by $23 million. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images/File)
An analysis by L.A.'s city comptroller last year found that roughly half the budget for homelessness went unspent.
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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.
Firefighters battle wind and fire as homes go up in flames in Malibu, California, along the Pacific Coast Highway near Carbon Canyon Road on Wednesday.. (David Crane/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images)
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.
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The budget for homelessness was also reduced in the 2024-2025 budget, but remained larger than the LAFD budget.
Tents for the homeless are seen on a Skid Row sidewalk in Los Angeles on Aug. 16, 2023. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)
Los Angeles is currently at the center of four ongoing wildfires — the Eaton, Palisades, Woodley and Hurst fires — which have consumed countless homes and businesses and claimed two lives.
The ongoing wildfires in Southern California. (Fox News)
The fires have prompted evacuation orders for more than 30,000 people and come as California faces an insurance crisis after several insurers fled the state, largely due to the costs associated with wildfire losses.
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Out of 20 of the most destructive California wildfires, seven have taken place in the last five years, the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection reported. In terms of economic cost, the 2018 Camp Fire caused $10 billion in damage, the Tubbs Fire in 2017 cost $8.7 billion and the Woolsey Fire in 2018 cost $4.2 billion.
FOX News' Anders Hagstrom and Kristen Altus contributed to this report.