The city of Los Angeles could experience a $115 million financial hit if Congress fails to reach a financial agreement that would avert sequestration this spring.
About $92 million of that would come from housing and housing assistance programs. Another $23 million would disappear from community development and public safety programs. This week’s Congressional action pushed sequestration – automatic spending cuts – to March 1.
“The impacts of sequestration to the city are very much a possibility if Congress fails to act on a plan to reduce the deficit by $1.2 trillion over 10 years by March 1, 2013,” City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana wrote in a report to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the Los Angeles City Council.
The specific programs he listed in the report include:
- Section 8 Housing
- Community Development Block Grants
- Community Oriented Policing Services
- Byrne Justice Assistance Grants
The city will ask department general managers to draft contingency plans in the event that it loses federal funding. If those plans include additional General Fund or reserve money, that would push the 2013-14 deficit beyond the projected $216 million shortfall.
