Budget Explorer · City of Long Beach

Where the money comes from, and where it goes

Comparable revenue, spending, and debt for City of Long Beach, on the same Census classification used for every city, county, and state in the Library — so the figures line up with peers rather than with the government's own budget book. Latest year: FY ending Sep 30, 2023. City of Long Beach's own FY2026 budget, in its own structure, follows below.

Audited actuals · Census classification · 451K residents

At a glance

Total revenue

$2.81B

$6,231 per resident

Total spending

$2.67B

$5,916 per resident

Spending per resident

$5,916

80th percentile of 71

Debt outstanding

$3.13B

$6,930 per resident · 75th percentile of 70

Own-source share

81%

51st percentile of 71

Capital share

18%

54th percentile of 71

Where the money comes from

$2.81B total

Own-source revenue (taxes, charges, interest) versus aid from other governments. Utility and trust revenue are shown alongside general revenue but run on their own books.

Property tax$253M9%
General sales tax$194M7%
Selective sales taxes$116M4%
License & other taxes$61M2%
Federal aid$227M8%
State & local aid$250M9%
Charges & fees$1.15B41%
Interest, fines, other$282M10%
Utility revenue$277M10%

Own-source share of general revenue 81% · federal aid 9% · property tax is 41% of taxes

Where it goes

$2.67B total

Current operations plus capital outlay, grouped by Census function. Interest on debt and transfers to other governments are broken out so they are not hidden inside services.

Transportation$914M34%
Environment & housing$463M17%
Public safety$434M16%
General government$290M11%
Utilities (water, power, gas)$225M8%
Health & hospitals$186M7%
Interest on debt$94M4%
Culture & recreation$63M2%

Show top functions with operating vs. capital ▸

Function	Category	Operating	Capital	Total
Sea & inland ports	Transportation	$233M	$169M	$402M
Police protection	Public safety	$309M	$6.5M	$316M
Highways	Transportation	$75M	$172M	$247M
General (unallocable)	General government	$231M	$1K	$231M
Natural resources	Environment & housing	$206M	—	$206M
Health	Health & hospitals	$186M	$231K	$186M
Transit	Transportation	$136M	$37M	$173M
Water utility	Utilities (water, power, gas)	$100M	$56M	$156M
Housing & community development	Environment & housing	$144M	$151K	$144M
Fire protection	Public safety	$114M	—	$114M
Air transportation	Transportation	$49M	$43M	$92M
Solid waste management	Environment & housing	$90M	—	$90M
Gas utility	Utilities (water, power, gas)	$69M	—	$69M
Central staff services	General government	$59M	—	$59M

Trend · 3 fiscal years

Nominal dollars. The Census Bureau cautions that single-government series are edited only for aggregates — read direction, not decimals.

Revenue

+5% over 2 yrs

$2.68B → $2.81B

Spending

+4% over 2 yrs

$2.57B → $2.67B

Debt outstanding

-8% over 2 yrs

$3.38B → $3.13B

How it compares · 71 cities and counties in the Library

Percentile within the cohort on each place's latest Census year. Higher is not better — the last column says what a high reading means so you can decide whether it matters here.

Measure	City of Long Beach	Cohort median	Percentile	Higher means
Spending per resident	$5,916	$3,741	80th	more spent per resident
Revenue per resident	$6,231	$3,548	81st	more raised per resident
Taxes per resident	$1,384	$1,328	56th	heavier own-tax load
Debt per resident	$6,930	$3,865	75th	more borrowed per resident
Own-source share of revenue	81%	81%	51st	less dependent on aid
Federal aid share of revenue	9%	7%	68th	more exposed to federal cuts
Capital share of spending	18%	18%	54th	more building, less operating
Interest share of spending	4%	4%	47th	more spend servicing debt
Debt ÷ annual revenue	1.11×	1.05×	56th	more leveraged

About this data

Census classification categories, not this government's own budget structure. Figures are audited actuals for the fiscal year shown, not the adopted budget.
The Census Bureau edits unit-level data only to produce state and national aggregates and advises against reading it as a precise time series for any single government; treat year-over-year moves under ~5% as noise.
Employee-retirement-system revenue is excluded (published separately by Census). Utility and insurance-trust revenue are shown separately from general revenue.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances (Individual Unit public-use files), unit 062037161173 (Long Beach City). Retrieved 2026-09-07. Classification manual.

Spot an error, or know a better source for this place's adopted budget? Suggest an edit on the assessment.

Adopted budget · FY2026

City of Long Beach's own budget, in its own structure, read from its published budget book and checked against the total the document itself prints. This is the current year — more recent than the Census series above, but only comparable to this city's own history. Totals cover 23 departments.

$3.04B total

Harbor$832M27%
Utilities$381M13%
Police$344M11%
Public Works$260M9%
Health and Human Services$204M7%
Fire$199M7%
Energy and Environmental Services$185M6%
Financial Management$98M3%
Technology and Innovation$90M3%
Parks, Recreation and Marine$88M3%
Community Development$84M3%
Airport$71M2%
All other (11)$199M7%

Parsed from the published budget book (pages 263-263) — all funds — operating, debt service and the capital improvement programme.
Figures are checked against the total the document itself prints before publishing.
Includes operating, debt service and capital spending, so these figures are larger than operating alone.
Excludes two non-departmental lines the page carries — interfund and non-operating transfers, and the police and fire pension plan — which together come to $693.7M of the printed $3,730,296,249 total.
Long Beach had not published an FY2027 adopted book when this was captured; the council was due to adopt it the same week, and the city typically publishes the book about three months later.
Harbor and Utilities are adopted by their own boards and appear here but not in the city's appropriation ordinance.
Source: FY2026 Adopted Budget (Summary of Budgets by Department) (published budget book), retrieved 2026-09-08. Open the source document.

Looking for how this fits City of Long Beach's capacity to deliver? The fiscal dimension, binding constraint, and pathways live in the City of Long Beach capacity assessment.