The spendthrift Los Angeles City Council – a city $5.1 billion in debt – allows each council members to employ dozens of aides with some of those aides making over $100,000 a year.
Los Angeles – the West Coast’s base of operations for Progressives and Liberals, has an exploding problem with its homeless population and an immigration policy that has them on the hook for expenditures related to non-citizens.
Additionally, the city has perennial issues with underfunded pension plans, in 2007 Los Angeles had to borrow $10 billion from the federal government to cover its pension obligations.
BREAKING: Los Angeles is in trouble!
LA is asking for a $3.9 billion coronavirus bailout from American taxpayers. So, our auditors dug into how LA spent their budget in 2019.#LosAngeles #OpenTheBooks #Salaries #transparency https://t.co/cU9tpt2OSV
— OpenTheBooks (@open_the_books) December 17, 2020
The finance data, calculated by OpenTheBooks – a non-profit watchdog that provides private sector oversight of local, state, and federal government spending, also shows that Los Angeles’ 15 city councilors each make more than $200,000 annually, a salary exceeding most members of the US Congress.
Other city employees also have a seat at the taxpayer feed trough. The report data identified approximately 20,000 city employees who make more than $147,000 a year. This payroll costs the taxpayers of the City of Los Angeles nearly $3 billion each year.
Los Angeles is home to 20,000 highly compensated city employees that cost taxpayers $3 billion. https://t.co/Ae4PI3ryNy
Nearly 2,000 of these employees out-earned Gov. Gavin Newsom! ($202,000)#LosAngeles #Garcetti #Newsom #Salary #OpenTheBooks #Transparency #Money pic.twitter.com/2vTOUq9oga
— OpenTheBooks (@open_the_books) December 19, 2020
Los Angeles, the nation’s second-largest city, has been mismanaged financial for decades, which has led to a mushrooming financial crisis. This crisis was exasperated by the ongoing and politically motivated management of the coronavirus pandemic.
An audit conducted in 2019 revealed that the “City of Angels” held a debt burden of roughly $5.1 billion. This debt burden equates to $4,000 per city taxpayer.
The report cited the city’s unfunded retirement obligations – including $8.5 billion in pension, and $2.7 billion in retiree health care benefits – as the chief reason for the financial strain.