Dollars and Nonsense

Alissa joins Mike and Godfrey to decipher LA’s new budget, Karen Bass’s second (or third?) State of the City, and which departments are getting more money this year. Then, how a plan to help Airbnb snuck into the budget, and fundraising updates for candidates as ballots for the June 2 election arrive later this week. Here are all LA’s budget documents and the press conference where Mayor Karen Bass presented her budget to the people, not to be confused with her 7-minute State of the City shared only on video We highly recommend using Controller Kenneth Mejia’s awesome budget app to understand it all. And he also has a new campaign billboard highlighting the city’s problem with liabilities (guess which department’s mistakes are costing you the most!) A new climate budget was included, as part of the mayor’s new climate action plan , released earlier this month “ A Passage Buried in L.A.’s Budget Hints at an Unusual Airbnb Gambit ,” writes LA Material ’s Julia Wick And Aaron Schrank also reports at LAist : “ Airbnb claims proposal included in mayor’s budget will bring tax revenue to LA ahead of Olympics ” Remember the “ Save Our Services ” campaign that Airbnb was trying to roll out last year? Yep, now it’s basically part of the mayor’s budget recommendations “Los Angeles doesn’t need new loopholes for the STR industry. It needs enforcement of the laws already on the books,” says Better Neighbors LA, which estimates that enforcing just 5% of illegal short-term rentals would add add $42 million to this year’s budget Featured in the LA Times On The Record newsletter, City Attorney’s Hydee Feldstein-Soto’s presence at the anti-LGBT “HopeFest” festival was originally reported by LA Ten Four and Left Coast Right Watch . Feldstein-Soto has yet to denounce the event LAist : “ $19M and counting in LA races. Campaigns for LA mayor and city attorney lead the fundraising ” Here’s the dashboard for all the campaign finance information for LA City candidates If you’re listening on Monday, LA Forward’s Charter Reform Advocacy Launch is happening Monday night, 4/27, at 7 p.m. on Zoom

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Dollars and Nonsense is an episode from LA Podcast by LA Podcast LLC.

This episode is 00:55:12 long.

This episode was published on Apr 27, 2026.

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