Long Beach Mayor's Budget Would Cut 40 Cops, Libraries, Children's Programs

Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster and other city officials at a Wednesday morning press gathering announced a proposed city budget that would close a $17.2 million deficit but do so by reducing the way emergency services are provided to the public.

A new paramedic service by which only one paramedic and one emergency medical technician, or EMT, would staff each unit is what Foster's budget proposes. It would also require cutting 40 police officer positions, as well as library services and youth programs.

The rather drastic budget for the next fiscal year also contains 181 potential layoffs and 113 positions presently unfilled being permanently cut, leaving 294 total positions axed, Police and three firefighters would be lost via attrition, the Press Telegram's Eric Bradley reports.

 "Mayor Bob Foster said during a morning press conference that the budget is indicative of a 'new normal' economy," Bradley writes, "in which Long Beach's revenues will flag behind its costs for the foreseeable future."

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To read the budget yourself, see the attached pdf.