Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) refused Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’s request for roughly $2 billion to keep California’s largest city from going off the fiscal cliff.
As Los Angeles faces a nearly $1-billion budget hole, Bass pressed Newsom last month to include the funding, including $638 million for “protecting city services under budgetary strain,” in his 2025-26 budget proposal.
But Newsom declined to grant aid, calling Bass’s request “a nonstarter,” and citing California’s staggering $12 billion deficit as a reason for withholding additional funding from Los Angeles.
“The state’s not in a position to write a check,” the governor said during a recent news conference. “When you’re requesting things that have nothing to do with disaster recovery, that’s a nonstarter … I don’t need to highlight examples of requests from the city and county that were not related to disaster recovery, and this state is not in a position, never have been, even in other times, to address those requests, particularly at this time.”
Newsom’s comments came after he unveiled a budget that puts the state at least $12 billion in the red, a shift from the roughly balanced budget he announced in January. The revised 2025-26 budget plan includes proposals to scale back healthcare for illegal immigrants, a reversal of Newsom’s promise to deliver “universal healthcare for all,” regardless of immigration status.
Other proposals included closing one of the state’s prisons by October 2026 to save an estimated $150 million, as well as cutting spending for a program providing in-home domestic and personal care services for some low-income residents and Californians with disabilities by capping workers’ overtime and limiting travel hours at 50 hours per week. Despite the cuts, Newsom carved out more than $750 million in tax credits for Hollywood, expanding state investment in film and TV tax credits.
Newsom said Wednesday that the necessity of the cuts was spurred on by President Donald Trump’s global tariffs, which the governor said had cut California’s revenue by billions. However, critics argued that Newsom’s steep spending increases during his time as the Golden State’s chief have significantly contributed to California’s budget crisis. Newsom has approved 60% spending increases since he was elected in 2019, they said.
Amid the state’s dire financial straits, the governor has approved billions in aid to Los Angeles to help the city recover from devastating fires it experienced in January.
Newsom said Wednesday that Bass has yet to use more than $1 billion of the $2.5 billion he offered to her city.
The governor’s refusal to accommodate the mayor’s request for additional funding follows her repeated efforts to pressure his administration into doing so.
In April, after she proposed $13.9 billion spending plan for Los Angeles’ 2025-26 fiscal year, Bass traveled to Sacramento to lobby the Newsom administration and legislative leaders for the $2 billion relief package to help close the city’s nearly $1-billion budget deficit.
“It’s very, very important that we solidify those relationships,” she said of city officials working with the state government for more funding.
“My proposed budget is balanced but we are facing dire economic times. It’s more important now than ever that we work closely with our state and labor partners, especially as we rebuild in the Palisades,” Bass added in a statement. “I will not stop advocating for our city and our employees.”
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At the time of her trip to Sacramento, she told reporters she was not able to sit down with Newsom as she was unable to get onto the governor’s schedule.
Bass is looking at cutting more than 2,700 city positions to help lower the city’s nearly $1 billion deficit to $800 million.
