Fellow Angelenos:

Ron Galperin
City Controller

The City and its surrounding metropolitan region feature incredible diversity in both population and the economy. Tourism and hospitality, professional and business services, international trade, entertainment production, and wholesale trade and logistics all contribute significantly to local employment. The Port of Los Angeles handles the largest volume of containerized cargo of all U.S. ports and ranks as number one in cargo value for U.S. waterborne foreign traffic. Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) was the fifth busiest airport in the world as measured by revenue of enplaned passengers in calendar year 2020, and was 13th in the world in air cargo tonnage according to Airports Council International statistics, in calendar year 2019.

At the beginning of fiscal year 2021, stay at home orders and travel restrictions established at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic were still in place and Los Angeles was experiencing the negative impacts of the recession, including unemployment of almost 20 percent. As the restrictions began to be lifted in late summer and early fall 2020, the economy began an uneven recovery. Some sectors, such as real estate, recovered their previous strength quickly. Other sectors, such as tourism and entertainment, have been much slower to recover and are still well short of pre-pandemic levels. Overall, unemployment in the City has dropped to a seasonally-adjusted 8.9 as of November 2021.

The City’s fiscal discussions were dominated by austerity, as much of the City’s reserves had been used to balance the fiscal year 2019-20 budget and revenues were anticipated to lag behind the already conservative budget estimates. Labor agreements were reopened, resulting in deferral of raises and other payments, as well as a separation incentive program, capital projects were delayed or cancelled, and a hard hiring freeze was implemented. In addition, facing a potential General Fund revenue shortfall of $600 million, proposals were made to utilize the rest of the City’s reserves and issue debt to be used as operating capital.

The passage of the federal American Rescue Plan Act in March 2021 significantly changed the fiscal outlook, as it included $1.28 billion in direct financial assistance to the City, with half to be received in FY 21 and half to be received the following year. This funding filled the revenue gap and eliminated the need to empty reserves and issue debt to balance the books. By the end of the fiscal year, the combination of federal funding and moderate improvement in revenues left the City in a strong position to face the uncertainty of the continuing pandemic.

Looking forward, while the City is currently in a strong fiscal position, significant challenges lie ahead. The almost $2 billion in one-time revenue from the federal government will be gone by the end of FY 22, and the City faces difficult decisions on how to continue the programming those funds made possible while simultaneously facing renewed labor negotiations and rising inflation.

The City operates under a Mayor-Council form of government. The Mayor supervises the administrative processes of the City and works with the City Council in matters relating to legislation, budget and finance. The 15-member City Council enacts ordinances, levies taxes, authorizes contracts and public improvements, adopts zoning and other land use contracts, and provides necessary resources for the budgetary departments and offices of the City. The City Controller and City Attorney are independently elected citywide.

The City has 46 departments, bureaus, commissions and offices, 39 of which have their operating funds annually budgeted by the City Council. The Department of Water and Power, Harbor Department, and the Department of Airports are publicly-owned entities under the control of boards appointed by the Mayor and confirmed by the City Council. Several other departments are fiscally independent or under the control of independent boards.

Public services provided by the City include police, fire and paramedics, residential refuse collection and disposal, wastewater collection and treatment, street maintenance and traffic management, enforcement of building safety laws, libraries, recreation and parks, community development, housing and services for seniors, planning; two airports, harbor, power and water services, and the convention center. Performance data on some of these services is collected below in the “City Activities” section.

For the fiscal year that ended on June 30, 2021, total City revenues were $18.4 billion, an increase of 5.2% from the prior year.

Expenses were $17.3 billion, 4.8% more than the prior year.

FY 21 Total City Revenues: $18.4 billion

FY 21 Total City Expenditures: $17.3 billion

Governmental Activities

Total revenues of governmental activities were $9.3 billion, while total expenses were $9.5 billion. Of the $9.5 billion total expenses, 54% was funded by taxes and other general revenues, and the remaining 46.0% was funded by program revenues and available net position. Program revenues are resources obtained from parties outside of the City and charges for services between the governmental and business-type activities.

Total expenses increased by $800 million or 9.2% above FY 20. Increased expenses were due to increased pension and OPEB costs of $352.6 million, additional liability claims expenses of $269.2 million, and a contracts, equipment, and supplies increase of $243.9 million, offset by a combined decrease in salaries, human resources benefits, and interest expense of $65.3 million.

Business-Type Activities

The $8.2 billion combined operating revenues of the City’s six business-type activities were $1.4 billion more than the $6.8 billion combined operating costs.

Business-Type Activities: Change in Net Position

Enterprise funds are used to report the functions presented as business-type activities in the government-wide financial statements, they are generally used to account for services for which the City charges customers – either outside customers or other departments/funds of the City. All of the City’s enterprise funds, except the convention center, are considered major funds. The operating results of the City’s six enterprise funds are reflected in the change in net position statement below.

Bonded Debt and Long-Term Notes Payable: $34.2 billion, 7.2% increase from FY 20

Ratings of the City’s Debts by Rating Agencies

The City has established guidelines for the structure and management of the City’s debt, which include target and ceiling levels for certain debt ratios to be used for financial planning purposes and restrictions on the types of items that can be financed, limiting financing only to those items with a useful life of six years or more. In accordance with this policy, the ratio of annual debt payments cannot exceed 15% of General Fund revenues for voter-approved and non-voter approved debt overall, and cannot exceed 6% of General Fund revenues for non-voter approved debt alone. The 6% ceiling for non-voter approved debt may be exceeded only if there is a guaranteed new revenue stream for the debt payments and the additional debt will not cause the ratio to exceed 7.5%, or there is no guaranteed revenue stream but the 6% ceiling shall not be exceeded for more than one year.

Of the $31.9 billion long-term bonds and notes payable, $642.0 million were General Obligation bonds.

The net position is the financial position of the City – assets and deferred outflows of resources minus liabilities and deferred inflows of resources.

Total City Assets: $77.3 billion. Deferred Outflows of Resources: $5.8 billion. Total: $83.1 billion.

Assets represent what the City owns:

• Cash and pooled investments
• Receivables
• Capital assets (land, buildings and infrastructure)

Total City Liabilities: $56.3 billion. Deferred Inflows of Resources: $1.7 billion. Total: $58.0 billion.

Liabilities represent what the City owes:

• Bonds and notes
• Claims and judgments
• Unearned revenue
• Accounts payable and accrued expenses

Net Position: $25.1 billion, $1.0 billion (4.3%) increase from FY 20

The net position of $25.1 billion consisted of:

• Net investment in capital assets: $22.0 billion, including land, building, infrastructure and equipment, less accumulated depreciation and outstanding debt related to acquisition, construction or improvements ($6.3 billion in governmental activities and $15.7 billion in business-type activities). This is an increase of $73.9 million over FY 20.
• Restricted net position: $5.9 billion, which represents external restrictions imposed by creditors, grantors, contributors, laws of other governments, constitutional provisions or enabling legislation ($4.1 billion in governmental activities and $1.8 billion in business-type activities). This is a decrease of $412.6 million from FY 20.
• Unrestricted Net position: $2.8 billion deficit due to the City’s pensions and other long-term obligations (-$7.5 billion in governmental activities and +$4.7 billion in business-type activities). The deficit decreased by $699.2 million from FY 20.

The City’s net position is illustrated in the table below. Click to toggle between years.

The General Fund is the general operating fund of the City and includes transactions of the Reserve Fund and other accounts that have General Fund type activity for generally accepted accounting principles reporting purposes.

On June 30, 2021, the General Fund reported a total fund balance of $1.2 billion, composed of $61.2 million nonspendable; $71.7 million committed; $426.7 million assigned for general government purposes; and $664.4 million unassigned. View the Management’s Discussion and Analysis section for more information about Governmental and Business-Type Activities.

In FY 21, General Fund revenues exceeded expenditures by $375.5 million.

Revenues

FY 21 Total General Fund Revenues: $5.7 billion, 1.3% decrease from FY 20

Tax revenues increased by $101.0 million or 2.2% from FY 20 due primarily to property tax growth. Taxes accounted for $4.8 billion (84.4%) of General Fund revenue.

Property taxes, which represent 42.4% of General Fund revenue, increased by $187.9 million (8.5%), primarily due to growth in current secured property tax receipts of $86.3 million.

Economy-sensitive revenues showed mixed results, reflecting the uneven recovery from the shutdowns at the beginning of the fiscal year. Sales tax increased by $25.9 million (4.8%) while business tax grew by $18.5 million (2.8%) due to growth in recreational cannabis retail activity more than making up for reductions in other categories of receipts in calendar year 2020.

Utility users’ tax revenues posted a decrease of $32.6 million (5.1%) as all three categories fell.

Other tax revenues fell by $98.7 million or 15.9%, primarily due to the continued collapse of Transient Occupancy Tax and Parking Users Tax receipts due to stay at home orders and travel restrictions associated with the pandemic, partially offset by record growth in Documentary Transfer Tax.

Licenses and permits revenues decreased by $5.6 million (16%), reflecting closures and cancellations associated with the pandemic.

Charges for services increased by $6.8 million (1.9%), reflecting the mixed results across various City operations.

Net investment earnings decreased by $105.2 million (106.0%), due to lower account balances and decreases in the fair market value of investments.

Expenditures

FY 21 General Fund Expenditures: $5.3 billion, 3.1% decrease from FY 20

Salaries and Benefits decreased by $96.7 million (2.8%), due to labor concessions and deferrals and a hiring freeze in response to the pandemic.

Capital outlays decreased by $25.1 million (46.2%), as projects were canceled or deferred due to the pandemic.

Expenditures for contractual services, operating equipment, and supplies went up by $53.6 million (4.4%), as purchases of testing kits and personal protective equipment in FY 20 were funded by other sources in 2021.