INGLEWOOD – The Inglewood Finance Department has released its mid-year budget review for fiscal year 2023-2024 which projects a $35 million revenue shortfall due to carryovers from previous fiscal years.
The mid-year budget will be presented during the June 4 city council meeting.
The City adopted an initial budget in September 2023 which projected revenue of $189,494,516 with expenditures projected at $203,244,522 which projected a budget surplus of roughly $6.5 million.
After the budget was adopted, the City added $20.3 million in carryovers, which increased the projected expenditures to $224,678,748 resulting in a projected deficit of $35 million.
The City has indicated they are projecting an additional $39 million in revenue, however, based on the attached budget summary, most revenue has either decreased or remains flat.
Additionally, the City doesn’t report receiving any additional funds from Admission Taxes from the sports and entertainment venues.
The City alludes to transferring $29.9 million into the general fund due to the refinancing of pension obligation bonds. The City provided a similar explanation in 2019 when it took on additional debt to cover up the deficit.
The city of Inglewood took on $36 million in new debt in 2017 without voter approval to help plug a budget deficit, earmarked millions for future pet projects and then doled out bonuses and raises to top executives, the Southern California News Group has learned.
City officials defend their decision to dump most of the proceeds of a pension obligation bond into Inglewood’s general fund — rather than using it all to pay down pension liabilities — at a time when the city was staggering financially while awaiting a windfall from a new NFL stadium.
City Hall even boasted about Inglewood’s newfound fiscal strength in a press release and Mayor James Butts pointed to the surplus resulting from the bond money as evidence of his successful leadership during his reelection campaign in 2018.
How Inglewood sidestepped voters when it took on millions in debt to cover up a deficit, then gave raises for executives
The budget shows expenses are up across all city departments with the Public Works department showing the only decrease. The department has requested the public alert them to potholes but according to information released under the California Public Records Act, none have been reported despite them being visible throughout the city. The City relies on people calling them as opposed to reporting them through either an app and/or portal to track the request.
Taxpayers pay special lighting assessments to repair street and traffic lights, however, due to copper wire theft, a stretch of Manchester Blvd. and Florence Ave. has remained dark for over six months. If the Public Works department isn’t making repairs, then of course expenses are down.
In theory, the City’s financial position has not gotten better under the leadership of James Butts and is no more than a facade to make Inglewood’s finances appear rosier than they are to attract investors into a City that is holding on by a thread.
In 2021, the City reported being fiscally solvent then turned around and unanimously voted to declare a fiscal emergency which has yet to be reversed.
According to the City’s budget documents, the general fund reserves will be used to cover the deficit, which includes the remaining funds received under the American Rescue Plan Act. The City also has a $10 million line of credit that is never discussed publicly on how much has been utilized or how it is being paid back.
The City continues to assemble funding to construct the 1.6-mile automated Inglewood Transit Connector and has pledged close to $10 million a year of taxpayer’s money towards ongoing maintenance and operation costs but has no consistent source of revenue to cover it.
On the same June 4 council agenda, the Human Resources Department is requesting an adjustment to the salary ordinance to provide raises to members of the Inglewood Police Officers Asociation and the Inglewood Police Management Association groups in accordance with their Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).
Aside from homeowners property values being up, how has James Butts turned around the City’s finances when all he’s done is create more debt to cover the existing debt and declare a fiscal emergency like his predecessor Roosevelt Dorn?
Are City employee’s jobs on the line next?
