Reflecting on Local Budget Fights in California: “Sorry, there’s just no money for that.”
By Michael Russo, Director of Equity in Public Funds
While California’s state leaders have just reached agreement on a spending deal, in cities, counties, and school districts across the state, Budget Season is in full flower — a magical time of year when residents and advocates who have dozens of concrete, actionable ideas for how to improve their communities, trying make them healthier and more equitable, bring their proposals to people who represent them and are told “sorry, there’s just no money for that.”
A new park that’s not right under a freeway, so kids with asthma can actually use it?
“Sorry, there’s just no money for that.”
Bilingual classroom aides to support English-learner students?
“Sorry, there’s just no money for that.”
A housing assistance program with a wait list shorter than the credits for an Avengers movie?
“Sorry, there’s just no money for that.”
Ask anybody who has done any kind of equity or justice work, and they’ll tell you their version of this story. This is a big problem, and not just because it’s a condescending way of treating people who are passionate about making things better. There’s a lot at stake in budget decisions, especially for low-income communities of color who are dealing with the legacy of decades, if not centuries, of disinvestment. Because public budgets leverage significant resources and are, in theory, accountable to residents, they can be powerful engines for equity by allocating much-needed funding to the places where it can make the most impact.
Yet, too often, this opportunity is missed — and funnily enough, it turns out that the reason is very rarely that there’s just no money to invest in community priorities. Instead, it’s because in two important ways, Budget Season is really Iceberg Season¹.
First, from the perspective of an advocate, Budget Season is a relatively short period that runs in many places only four or five weeks between the publication of a draft budget, perhaps sometime in mid or late May, a series of public hearings a week or two later, and a final vote to adopt before the end of June (the state budget process is longer and more open, with the Governor releasing an initial proposal in January).
But much like an iceberg, most of the budget development process happens out of sight, and by the time that budget draft goes public in May, the lion’s share of the work is already done. Back in December or January, the different departments and the City Manager or Superintendent or County Executive Officer were already meeting to identify options, make fiscal projections, and decide what to prioritize. From that perspective it’s not surprising that new ideas coming in so late in the game rarely get much traction.
Second, just like you can’t steer an iceberg², local budgets are very often on autopilot. Budgets are usually set by looking at what a department spent in the previous year, adding a couple of percent to account for inflation and salary growth, and if the economy is doing well that year, only then deciding what to do with the small amount of money left over. Sometimes this is simple inertia, and sometimes out-of-date-state requirements or multi-year contracts are to blame, but the end result is the same, with half-empty juvenile camps or pet projects of long-departed officials continuing to vacuum up funding that could be used much more effectively elsewhere³.
Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be this way, and the examples of doing things differently, while admittedly few, are inspiring. Take LAUSD’s recent decision to adopt a data-driven Student Equity Need Index to identify and then send additional funding to the highest-need schools in the district. We worked with the Community Coalition and Inner City Struggle, two organizing groups representing parents and students from parts of the district that have seen historical disinvestment, to create and win the index — and now, equity is built into LAUSD’s budget process and will move $25 million this year and over $300 million annually starting in 2019.
There will be victories won for equity in the next few weeks, as passionate advocates insist that public resources go to public needs — and the dollars they move will lead to real improvements in our state’s communities. But it’s past time for city, county, and school district leaders to recognize that they can’t just think of the community once the budget is almost finished — it’s time for them to open up their budget processes, so equity can be part of the foundation, not an afterthought.
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1: the one flaw in this metaphor is that the budget process happens in the spring and summer, not the winter. Although actually, now that I think about it icebergs get into the ocean once it gets warmer and they crack off of their glaciers of origin. In fact, Wikipedia informs me that the Titanic was sunk in mid-April. The metaphor works!
2: or so I assume. As we’ve already established, glaciology is not my area of expertise.
3: as folks who lived through the Great Recession will remember, in bad budget years it’s less Iceberg Season and more New Season of Game of Thrones Season.
