Los Angeles County has almost no money for disaster response — despite the frequency of natural disasters in the most populous county in America, and despite the presence of a large and valuable property tax base.
The Washington Post reported Tuesday:
Documents that include a fiscal year 2024 budget sheet show the county’s operating finances for its Office of Emergency Management is around $15 million. The budget for this office is not typically made public, nor is it widely shared among emergency management employees. The details have not previously been reported.
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For a county with nearly 10 million residents who live across 4,100 sprawling square miles, emergency management experts said that the office’s budget is shockingly low, especially when compared with similar major municipalities. For example, the emergency management budget for New York County, also known as Manhattan, sits at about $88 million; the office in Illinois’ Cook County, home to Chicago, had more than $130 million in funding for fiscal year 2025.
And L.A. County is no stranger to catastrophes. It has declared 74 disasters over the past 20 years and is barely recovering from the January firestorm that was one of the most destructive in state history. It often hosts major events, such as some World Cup matches in 2026 and the next Summer Olympics in 2028. The county’s emergency management budget underlines growing concerns about whether officials can properly prepare for and respond to all-encompassing incidents, while carrying out everyday functions.
L.A. County Fire Department Chief Anthony Marrone apologized to residents in January after the county and the City of Los Angeles were unable to prevent the spread of deadly and destructive wildfires in the area.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of Trump 2.0: The Most Dramatic ‘First 100 Days’ in Presidential History, available for Amazon Kindle. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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