Civic Dashboard · FY 2025-26
Where your tax dollars go.
The Redondo Beach City Council adoptedThe Council voted 5-0 to adopt the budget on June 17, 2025. The fiscal year runs July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026. a $249M budget on June 17, 2025. Hover any underlined term to see what it means in plain English.
General FundThe General Fund is the City's main checkbook — it pays for police, fire, parks, libraries, and most day-to-day services. About half the total budget.
$121M
revenue
CIPCapital Improvement Program — one-time spending on streets, buildings, parks, sewers, and other physical infrastructure. Funded by grants, special-purpose taxes, and reserves.
$90.3M
capital projects
City Staff
458
460 w/ new hires
Per Resident
$3,744
across 66,586 residents
Five-year trend
How fast is the budget growing?
General Fund operating spending from FY 2021-22 actuals through FY 2025-26 proposed. Revenue is shown for the two years it's available cleanly in the document.
Over the five-year window, General Fund spending grew 26% and revenue grew 14%. Note the Y axis starts at $70M, not zero — both series live in a narrow band and a zero-based axis would flatten the slope.
Money in
Where the General Fund comes from.
The City projects $120,709,967 in General Fund revenue for FY 2025-26. 46% of that is property taxIncludes both the City's share of the standard ~1% county property tax bill and the 'Property Tax in-Lieu of VLF' the State began sending to cities in 2004 to replace vehicle license fee revenue..
- Property TaxTax on the assessed value of homes and commercial buildings. The City's share of the ~1% county property tax bill, plus Property Tax in-Lieu of VLF (vehicle license fee replacement the State began sending cities in 2004).$48.8M · 46.0%
- Sales & Use TaxThe City's slice of every taxable purchase made in Redondo Beach — about 1% of the 9.5% rate goes to the City. Includes restaurants, retail, and online purchases delivered locally.$11.4M · 10.8%
- Charges for ServicesFees the City collects when it provides a specific service — recreation classes, building plan checks, paramedic transports, parking permits. Cost recovery, not a tax.$10.8M · 10.2%
- Transient Occupancy TaxThe hotel tax — 12% of every hotel room bill in town. Paid by visitors, not residents. Often called TOT or 'bed tax.'$9.17M · 8.7%
- Utility Users' TaxA 4.75% tax that appears on your electricity, gas, telephone, cable, and water bills. The City's third-largest tax source.$9.03M · 8.5%
- Use of Money & PropertyInterest the City earns on its cash reserves, plus rent from City-owned buildings and land it leases out.$3.22M · 3.0%
- Licenses & PermitsFees for building permits, business licenses, dog licenses, film permits, and similar approvals.$2.76M · 2.6%
- Property Transfer TaxA one-time tax collected when a home or commercial property changes hands — $1.10 per $1,000 of sale price in Redondo Beach.$2.30M · 2.2%
- Other RevenuesMiscellaneous income — donations, refunds, settlement payments, sales of surplus equipment, and other one-off items.$2.23M · 2.1%
- Franchise FeesPayments from cable, gas, electric, and trash companies for the right to operate in City streets and rights-of-way.$2.21M · 2.1%
- Fines & ForfeituresParking citations, code violations, and court-ordered penalties paid to the City.$1.53M · 1.4%
- Business License TaxAn annual tax every business operating in Redondo Beach pays — calculated from gross receipts or a flat fee, depending on the business type.$1.38M · 1.3%
- Other TaxesSmaller tax categories — Real Property Transfer (state-shared portion), tax on parking lot revenue, and a few others.$990K · 0.9%
- IntergovernmentalMoney the State or other agencies send to the City for specific purposes (state subventions, SB 90 reimbursements).$219K · 0.2%
Money out
Where the General Fund goes.
General Fund operating spending totals $108,322,823. Public safetyPolice + Fire combined. The City runs its own fire department — most cities Redondo's size contract with LA County Fire instead. takes 64% of it.
- PolicePatrol, investigations, traffic, jail, dispatch, code enforcement, parking enforcement, and animal control. 158 budgeted positions.$46.9M · 43.3%
- FireFire suppression, paramedic transport, prevention, and emergency preparedness. The City runs its own fire department — most cities Redondo's size contract with the County.$22.5M · 20.8%
- Public WorksStreets, sidewalks, sewers, storm drains, parks maintenance, fleet, and engineering. The General Fund slice only — Solid Waste and Wastewater are separate enterprise funds paid for by user fees.$8.62M · 8.0%
- Community ServicesParks & Recreation programs, the senior center, the Performing Arts Center, family services, and recreation classes.$7.72M · 7.1%
- Public LibraryThree branches — Main, North Branch, and the new Riviera Village location. Books, programs, public computers, and meeting rooms.$4.57M · 4.2%
- Community DevelopmentPlanning, zoning, building permits, and code enforcement of building standards. Reviews every construction project in town.$4.34M · 4.0%
- City AttorneyLegal advice to the Council and staff, prosecuting misdemeanors, and the Homeless Court program (the City has its own in-house homeless housing team).$4.33M · 4.0%
- Financial ServicesAccounting, payroll, the annual audit, business licensing, grants administration, and writing this budget book.$2.78M · 2.6%
- Human ResourcesHiring, benefits, labor negotiations, training, and workers' compensation administration for all City employees.$2.62M · 2.4%
- City ManagerThe City's chief executive and staff — they run day-to-day operations and carry out Council policy.$1.29M · 1.2%
- City ClerkKeeps the City's official records, runs municipal elections, manages public records requests, and clerks Council meetings.$1.15M · 1.1%
- Mayor & CouncilThe five-member Council and the directly-elected Mayor — stipends, support staff, and travel.$864K · 0.8%
- City TreasurerManages the City's cash, investment portfolio, and banking relationships. An elected position separate from the Finance Director.$417K · 0.4%
- Waterfront & Econ DevEconomic development programs funded by the General Fund. The harbor and pier operations themselves are paid for by Harbor enterprise funds, not General Fund.$240K · 0.2%
The decisions
52 individual choices Council voted on.
The five biggest by dollar impact. The full list is grouped by category — fee increases, mandates, new services, and so on.
- +$1.35M#51Vehicle Replacement Request
one-time
- +$1.03M#22Transit Operations & Maintenance Funding (BCT + RBTC)
ongoing cost
- −$486K#02Parking Meter Revenue and Credit Card Fees
ongoing cost
- +$367K#24Crossing Guard Services
one-time
- +$307K#09Special Election for Zoning Changes
one-time
The neighborhood
How does Redondo stack up?
South Bay cities at a glance. Sorted by per-resident General Fund spending. Apples-to-apples is hard — some cities contract out fire service, some have enormous commercial tax bases. Read the notes.
| City | Pop.Most recent U.S. Census estimate. Decennial census figures used where ACS estimates aren't available. | GF TotalTotal General Fund operating budget — the day-to-day services budget, excluding enterprise funds and capital projects. Compared across cities at their most recently adopted fiscal year. | Per residentGeneral Fund spending divided by population. A rough way to compare service intensity — but it can mislead when cities have very different commercial tax bases or contract out big services like fire. |
|---|---|---|---|
El Segundo FY 2025-26 · own fire · own police | 16,532 | $104M | $6,291 |
Manhattan Beach FY 2024-25 · own fire · own police | 35,506 | $98.0M | $2,760 |
Torrance FY 2025-26 · own fire · own police | 141,364 | $298M | $2,109 |
Redondo Beach FY 2025-26 · own fire · own police | 66,586 | $121M | $1,813 |
Hermosa Beach FY 2025-26 · county fire · own police | 19,507 | $27.6M | $1,415 |
- El Segundo: Industrial tax base (Mattel, Chevron refinery, aerospace HQs) inflates per-capita figures.
- Manhattan Beach: Most recent GF figure available; FY26 total operating budget reported at $151M including enterprise funds.
- Hermosa Beach: Fire is contracted to LA County, so the General Fund total is smaller than neighbors at face value.
What's notable this year
The cushion is thin
After all spending, the General Fund is projected to end June 30, 2026 with just $42,906 in available balance on top of the 8.33% contingency reserveA reserve the Council requires the City to keep on hand for emergencies — set at 8.33% of operating spending, or roughly one month of expenses.. The City balanced the budget by drawing $3.5M from its CalPERS ReserveA savings account the City built up over years specifically to absorb spikes in pension costs (the 'CalPERS Unfunded Accrued Liability'). Once it's spent, future UAL payments need to come from operating revenue..
The pension billUnfunded Accrued Liability — the gap between what CalPERS (the state pension system) projects it will owe retired City employees and what's actually been saved. Cities pay this down over years like a mortgage.
The City owes CalPERS $4.3M this year toward unfunded pension liability — principal and interest. Only about $350K of that is covered by ongoing tax revenue; the rest comes from the CalPERS Reserve and one-time savings.
Hotels are the swing vote
Hotel taxTransient Occupancy Tax — the 12% tax on hotel rooms. Paid by visitors, but felt by every resident, because it covers services without raising local taxes. is projected at $9.2M, roughly $2M below the City's full potential. Staff cited softer travel demand and economic uncertainty. New supply from the Marine Avenue hotels and the Legado hotel adds upside.
A heavy capital year
$90.3M in capital projectsOne-time spending on physical infrastructure — streets, buildings, sewers, parks. Tracked separately from operating costs because each project has a clear start and end. is planned, with about $40M coming from outside grants and $30M in newly committed funding. Most of it does not touch the General Fund.
For one resident
What this works out to per person.
Spread across the 66,586 people who live here, the per-resident math looks like this. (Note: residents don't pay all of this directly — visitors, businesses, and state/federal grants chip in.)
- Total City spending per resident
- $3,744
- General Fund revenue per resident
- $1,813
- Property tax received per resident
- $732
- Police + Fire spending per resident
- $1,042
Operating + capital, every fund combined.
Day-to-day services only.
Includes the VLF replacement.
The largest single category.
Sources
- City of Redondo Beach — FY 2025-26 Proposed Budget (PDF) · 15 MB · the full 1,000+ page document.
- Budget & Capital Improvement Program — Financial Services
- OpenGov — interactive transparency portal
- Easy Reader News — coverage of the 5-0 adoption vote
- Neighbor cities: Manhattan Beach Finance, Hermosa Beach, El Segundo, Torrance. Population from U.S. Census QuickFacts.
Figures shown are from the City Manager's Proposed Budget adopted by Council on June 17, 2025. Population is the most recent estimate from the U.S. Census Bureau. Department totals are General Fund appropriations before transfers out. Numbers are rounded for readability — see the source PDF for line-item detail.