The Inglewood City Manager’s office presented the council with the upcoming FY 2022-2023 budget which details a nearly $6 million surplus due to funds received under the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) awarded by the federal government.
The City patted itself on the back for “increasing revenue over expenditures” this current fiscal year which was not exactly truthful.
They implied the City was bringing in more revenue, which could lead residents to believe it’s derived from the opening of SoFi Stadium while glossing over the fact that the City put $13.3 million of ARPA funds into the general fund over the last two weeks.
The budget slide showing revenue from Admissions Tax (AMT) wasn’t clearly explained. In FY 2020-21 when venues were closed due to the pandemic, the budget showed AMT totalling $7.4 million. For the FY 2021-22, which runs from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30, which includes revenue generated from Super Bowl 56, that number dropped to $400,000. The slide below denotes AMT was previously classified as “other revenue”. Why is there a $7 million decrease from the year prior?
When we pulled up the FY 2020-21 budget, the other revenue totaling $7.8 million was attributed to reimbursements received for police services for SoFi Stadium.
The City has committed over $15 million in outside police services since 2021 with Hawthorne Police Department ($2M), California Highway Patrol ($8M), and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s department ($8.2M).
According to the NFL petition initiative that was approved by the city council in Feb. 2015, admissions tax from the stadium is capped at $15 million. Historically, without SoFi Stadium and YouTube Theatre being open, the city received less than $1 million annually from AMT generated by the Forum. This photo shows that for FY 2020-21 the city received $400,000 in AMT from the Forum.
Police and fire services represent 62% of the City’s budget and increases to those expenditures are attributed to salary increases, and rising healthcare and pension costs.
The sports and entertainment venues have been open to the public for nearly two years and frankly the numbers show that opening SoFi Stadium is costing taxpayers more than it is bringing in due to the police and fire costs associated with events.
How else does the City explain a 70,000 seat stadium, 6,000 seat YouTube Theatre, and 17,505 seat Kia Forum collectively only bringing in $400,000 between Oct. 1, 2021 through today?
WHERE’S THE AMT FROM SOFI STADIUM FOR FY 2021-22?
Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts responded to questions asking about the discrepancy.
“Apples and oranges. One is a reimbursement revenue. The other is a tax revenue,” said Butts.
Neither City Manager Artie Fields nor Budget Manager Keauonna Buchannon provided a concise explanation for the $7 million decrease from the previous year.
The city is currently without a CFO after the retirement of David Esparza earlier this year and long-time treasurer Wanda Brown is banned from the dais for alerting the public about the City’s shell game with the finances.
1 Comment
Indeed it is comparing Apples to Oranges !!
So, May 22 (about 4 months ago) there was a deficit and now thanks to Biden’s sending Covid Cash the bills are covered and Jimmy’s team wants a Gold Star.??
No, no, no No Gold Stars here!
Clearly some folks are trying to pull a magic trick ala now you see it now you don’t.
The budget should NOT be a mystery! Yes, there are more categories but it boils down to: where the money comes from and this is how we spent it last year and in the city’s proposed budget how we plan to spend what we think we will get based on prior years.
Think of it like a household budget His Payroll and Her Payroll are the Income sources and Rent(Mortgage), Groceries,Car Expenses, Insurance are the must haves while movies, date nights, and Ice Cream are the wish we coulds.
Just like Credit Cards the Bond Loans and the Interest must be paid back to the investors.
Just like the Payroll checks at home, the city should not greatly spend more than the expected income. (Don’t buy the Champagne and Caviar every night if you have a minimum wage rice and beans income)
So in the City Graphic it looks like someone says oh look “Our recently dead uncle is leaving us millions” but somehow it didn’t quite make it from the mail box to the bank because someone stopped and had a few rounds at the bar to celebrate!
The Money from Uncle Stan was either not as much as we were told or somewhere someone forgot where they sidetracked a few million.
We have been told we would receive money for ticket sales, money from tax on beer/soda/apparel sales. And then separately the city should be reimbursed for the service of police officers from other agencies……But it does not look like that is what is happening does it?
It looks like the Forum admission tax of $400,000.00 (almost not quite enough to pay for the Mayor’s administration assistant aka girlfriend) but that all the Sofi dollars are not accounted for as admission fees or separate Sofi concession fees. Instead it those dollars seem to all be going to pay police meaning the benefit to residents of the community is the joy of extra smog and yes serious aggravation if you forgot it was an event day and either can not get home or can not get out of your home.
Of course the real test of this will be if someone actually needs paramedic service and the traffic delay causes permanent health
damage or death…..Guess where that lawsuit cash will come from!
Truth and Transparency should be what we expect. Unfortunately this is the New under the BUTTSTEAM improved plan where what we get is not so truthful and a bunch of smog blurring the facts all while we are locked out of the building we paid to build for our service!
Apples and Oranges? Maybe Jimmy is alluding to the plastic fake variety he has been serving up rather than the nutrient rich actually grown on trees variety that once could be found in the neighbors back yard which we can sink our teeth into and enjoy..
Could this misunderstanding of. Money out should be less than money coming in explain why. Jimmy can not afford to drive his own car and uses ours?