LA Mayor Karen Bass to Cut Her Own Pay with $1 Billion City Budget Deficit

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass confirmed over the weekend that she would be taking a pay cut, with her staff not receiving raises this fiscal year, as her office desperately tries to find places to slash the city budget amidst a nearly $1 billion deficit.

In a statement, Deputy Mayor of Communications Zach Seidl said that all scheduled raises for her office would not receive the next several rounds of scheduled cost of living raises going well into 2026. Mayor Bass would also see a pay cut, but as of Monday, that amount has not been clarified, with not even a ballpark range being announced.

“The mayor is taking a pay cut and Mayor’s Office staff are not taking their regularly scheduled cost of living adjustments office-wide in June 2025 (4%), December 2025 (2%), and June 2026 (4%),” explained Seidl.

The cut would need to be significant to have any sort of impact against the massive budgetary shortfall. Currently, the Mayor of Los Angeles is one of the highest paid elected positions in the state at $301,000 a year. This is also more than the Vice President ($235,000 – $289,000 a year) and the Speaker of the House ($223,000 a year), on par with Associate Supreme Court Justices ($303,000 a year). On the state level, only the Mayor of San Francisco makes more ($357,000 a year, although current SF Mayor Daniel Lurie has vowed to only take a $1 salary), with Bass earning more than the Governor ($242,000 a year) and Attorney General ($210,000 a year).

For the last few months, the city of Los Angeles has scrambled to solve their looming budget crisis. While many in the city were anticipating some sort of budget crunch for the 2025-2026 fiscal year, the announcement by the Los Angeles City Administrative Officer in March putting the figure at nearly $1 billion shocked many.

Reasons for such a huge gap included $61 million coming from the existing budget gap from the last fiscal year, $315 million in overall declining revenues, $100 million in increased liability claims, $275 million in reserve fund replenishment caused by emergency spending for the Palisades fire, $80 million in solid waste fee subsidies, and $250 million in scheduled pay raises for city employees.

Pay cut for Bass

Mayor Bass responded last month by proposing huge spending rollbacks and major budgetary cuts. This included the layoffs of 1,600 employees and the elimination of 1,000 positions, with over 400 LAPD employees being on the chopping block alone. Bass also began lobbying the state for a massive $2 billion relief package.

“The reality is that our city faces a more than $800 million dollar deficit,” said Bass last month. “Cities like ours are going through challenging economic times across the nation. Turmoil and uncertainty from Washington and a slowing economy are causing lower revenue projections to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. Liability settlements have tripled from backed up lawsuits during the pandemic and uncapped damages. Combined with personnel costs, and of course the fires and the rebuilding all together, Los Angeles we have a difficult budget to balance.

“But I want to be straight with you – my proposed budget unfortunately includes layoffs, which is a decision of absolute last resort. My proposed budget is balanced but we are facing dire economic times. It’s more important now than ever that we work closely with our state and labor partners, especially as we rebuild in the Palisades.”

However, city employee groups and labor unions have vowed to fight the cuts and layoffs as the proposal is reviewed by the City Council. Mayor Bass also faced criticism for not doing more personally to reduce the deficit. This led to her announcement over the weekend.

While it is currently unknown how much of a cut Bass will be taking, many have suggested that she follow Mayor Lurie’s example in San Francisco and take a $1 salary for the upcoming year. While $300,000 wouldn’t make much of a dent in the deficit overall, it would be something, and would be the equivalent to at least a few Los Angeles city worker salaries.

A more finite reduced salary figure for Bass is expected soon, with the Los Angeles City Council currently working towards final consideration for the budget proposal in June.