Long Beach launches strategic fiscal improvement dashboard

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The City of Long Beach has launched an online dashboard that aims to give credit agencies and residents an in-depth look into the City's finances.

In a statement on the website, City Manager Donna Gayden, who was hired over a year ago to help the city’s financial situation, said the DebtDash was built to give residents a better look into the city’s financial status. The website includes financial information such as budgets, audits, financial ratings from independent agencies, policies, status reports and other things.

“More than one year ago (February 28) I was hired to lead the City on a path to fiscal stability,” Gayden’s statement said. “Over many years, Long Beach consistently spent more than its total annual revenue, using rainy day funds and borrowing to make up for the shortfalls. These operational deficits have severely impacted the City’s independent financial rating, which now is ‘negative,’ and this further drives up our borrowing costs. Furthermore, our long-term debt total is staggering, which has exacerbated budget difficulties and made it extremely difficult to find our way out of these deep waters.”

The site also includes information on the city’s debt, demographics and full valuation of the city’s property. City officials also included key dates for the upcoming budget.

For more information, visit www.debtdash.org/long-beach.