Welcome to the Los Angeles County Budget!

You Draft the County Budget


Governments at all levels across the US are facing huge budget challenges. For years, Los Angeles County has been prudent in managing our budget, saving for the bad times in the good times. But the impact of the global economy is hitting us too.

To help you understand the County budget and where money is spent, we've designed this on-line tool to give you the basics. We have a budget over $23 billion so it's very complicated! But hopefully you will learn more about the services the County provides and the impact of cuts.
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How Does It Work?

To get started, you can choose to sign-in, which will allow you to save your budget and send it to your friends and followers on Facebook and Twitter, and to our office. Read More...

About the Budget Tool

About the Budget Tool


What's your opinion of the Los Angeles County annual budget? In these hard times, what would you cut? What would you keep?

Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe created this unprecedented online tool - available 24 hours a day, anywhere you have online access - to help you understand the County budget process.

About Los Angeles County's Budget


Los Angeles County's net budget is approximately $23 billion per year and Los Angeles County serves more than 10 million people - more than are in the entire state of Michigan.

The County provides municipal services to unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County and it also provides additional services to the entire county area.

The County budget is different than the state or many city budgets because nearly 90% of our budget is "fixed" or must be used for certain programs mandated by the State and Federal governments. These costs cannot be changed from year to year. They include health and social services, the Public Defender, the District Attorney, the Los Angeles Sheriff's office and more.

This budget tool is for 'Flexible' expenses only. Flexible expenses are 15.3% of Los Angeles County's budget, or $3.695 billion. What would you cut? What would you keep?

To learn more about the county budget, download The County of Los Angeles Annual
Report (2009-2010)
and the 2011-2012 Adopted Budget Report.