After a brief discussion at its regularly scheduled council meeting Tuesday, the Beverly Hills City Council approved its 2024-25 fiscal year budget with a fund total of $647.3 million. The financial state of the city is stable now, but projections show uncertainty in the city’s reserves over the next several years.

Caution was emphasized in the creation of this budget with inflation continuing to remain a national issue. California as a whole is also facing a multi-billion dollar deficit, and the chaotic political climate caused by international war and a looming presidential election has set the stage for an unpredictable future.

“Whatever we can do to start looking at being more fiscally responsible, I want to encourage and support,” Vice Mayor Sharona R. Nazarian said at Tuesday’s meeting

Public Works is the largest department in Beverly Hills in terms of appropriations, with an operation revenue close to $224 million in FY 24-25. This is a 9.7 percent increase from the previous fiscal year, but much of that increase is coming from a transfer of parking meter revenues and increases in solid waste and water revenues.

The Police Budget makes up a sizable portion of the budgets of most cities with their own police department, and Beverly Hills is no exception. About $114 million — or about 18 percent of the overall proposed budget — is directed to the police department. This is about twice as much as the fire department, which received just over $60 million in this budget allocation.

Both departments received noticeable increases to their budget mainly towards improving salaries and compensation to city employees. Increases in compensation for city employees was also an important aspect of this budget, with the city continuing the effort to ensure that its workers are fairly paid.

“It’s worth every penny,” Mayor Lester Friedman said of spending on the police and fire departments. “Our community expects it and gets it, and when we have response times less than three minutes for police and fire, it is because of the investment we made.”

Property tax is the largest of five major sources that the city relies on to fund these services, projected at about $103.5 million, or 31 percent of the General Fund revenue this budget. Business tax makes up the second-largest share of General Fund revenue, and it is also expected to see an approximately 8 percent increase to $62.6 million

The Transient Occupancy Tax — which is charged to visitors staying in hotels and AirBnBs in the city — is the third most prolific revenue source at $51.2 million. This mark also represents an increase from the previous year by around $1.7 million.

Unlike the previous three, the third biggest contributor to Beverly Hills’ revenue is expected to decrease. Sales tax is expected to take a hit as inflation pressures continue, though the projections in this budget are only marginally lower than what was brought in during the current fiscal year at $44.8 million, or about 13 percent of the general fund.

Councilmember John Mirisch, who voiced his opposition to the budget as presented as he has in previous years, believed the budget as a whole was “pretty good” but represented a wider problem in the city’s financial perspective. He argued that the city sometimes “Treats residents like ATMs.”

“We continue to provide extraordinary services for our residents and I think our residents deserve it,” Mirisch said. “But in many cases, I feel that we are charging for them.”

One of the late increases approved at Tuesday’s meeting was an almost $8 million increase to spending for Metro Engineering and Compliance Monitoring Services. These additions were approved on May 21 as contractual services that are 100 percent reimbursable by Metro and do not affect the city’s bottom line. Additionally, the hiring of five police officers through June 2025 was also approved as part of the budget motion. 

The motion passed 4-1, with Mirisch being the only dissenting vote.

Photo and image by Melpomenem on iStockphoto.com.