Dear Neighbors:
Los Angeles is the second largest city in America, with a population greater than 4 million people, a total budget of $30 billion, and 47,000 City employees working in 45 departments, bureaus and offices. Each January, my office publishes the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR), a 400+ page document that details the City’s finances over the past fiscal year, and reports on revenues, expenditures, assets, liabilities, and department performance data. In short, last year was a stable year with revenues up by 13.7 percent, but expenses grew by 7.5 percent, and even greater increases could be on the horizon.
To help you all get the most useful information from the CAFR, we have made it available in a brief and accessible online version that contains a data story, graphs and 60+ charts — all of which illustrate how taxpayer dollars are spent by the City departments that serve you.
We know that the cost of providing neighborhood services will continue to rise, and the potential for a slowing economy should never be far from our minds. With that said, the City must be disciplined in its budgeting, grow its reserves, and manage its special funds more transparently.
Check out all the City metrics and read the CAFR at https://lacontroller.org/financial-reports/cafr-2019/.
Very truly yours,
RON GALPERIN L.A. Controller