Alex Villanueva discusses the local response to California’s devastating wildfires on The Big Money Show.
Los Angeles’ budget is in the spotlight Multiple forest fires Outrage across the city amid revelations that Mayor Karen Bass cut the Fire Department’s budget last year while prioritizing spending on the city’s homeless population.
For the fiscal year 2023-2024, Los Angeles The Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) is budgeted at $837 million, representing about 65% of the $1.3 billion homeless budget.
Mayor Karen Bass cut the Los Angeles Fire Department’s budget by more than $17 million last year. It originally proposed cutting it by $23 million. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images/File)
An analysis by the Los Angeles city comptroller last year concluded that nearly half of the homelessness budget went unspent.
From the 2023-2024 to 2024-2025 budgets, the LAFD budget was reduced by more than $17 million from $837,191,237 to $819,637,423.
Firefighters battle winds and fires as homes catch fire in Malibu, California, along the Pacific Coast Highway near Carbon Canyon Road in the Palisades Fire on January 8, 2025. (David Crane/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images)
Bass had proposed a larger cut to the LAFD budget, about $23 million, but it was not adopted.
FOX Business has reached out to Bass’ office for comment on the reasons behind the cuts.
Campuses closed in the Los Angeles area as wildfires spread
The homelessness budget was also reduced in the 2024-2025 budget but remains larger than the LAFD budget.
Tents for homeless people appear on the sidewalk of Skid Row in Los Angeles on August 16, 2023. (Frederick J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)
Los Angeles is currently at the center of four ongoing wildfires: the Eaton, Palisades, Woodley and Hearst fires, which have burned Countless homes and businesses It claimed the lives of two people.
Ongoing wildfires in Southern California (Fox News)
The fires led to evacuation orders for more than 30,000 people, and come at a time when California is facing a crisis Insurance crisis After many insurance companies fled the state, largely due to the costs associated with wildfire losses.
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Of the 20 most destructive wildfires in California, seven occurred in the past 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 2017 Tubbs Fire cost $8.7 billion, and the 2018 Woolsey Fire cost $4.2 billion.
Fox News’ Anders Hagstrom and Kristen Althus contributed to this report.
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