By Max Kennedy
LOS ANGELES, CA – In November of 2020, Los Angeles County voters approved Measure J, a charter amendment requiring the county spend 10 percent of its general fund budget on community programs and alternatives to incarceration by 2024.
This week, however, the LA County Chief Executive Office issued a proposal for far less: $100 million, or about one percent of the 2020 county budget.
Several organizations representing incarcerated people, disadvantaged communities and minority groups criticized the CEO’s budget proposal.
“What we are seeing now is the CEO seeking to subvert the Board of Supervisors and their constituents by radically underfunding the Measure J initiative in an undisclosed process,” said Ivette Alé of Dignity and Power Now.
Ron Collins of Reimagine LA Coalition, an organization created to support the measure, agreed that the funding proposal was insufficient.
“$100 million this year and $300 million over three years is an unacceptable down payment on Measure J given the historic divestment from impacted communities, particularly Black communities,” said Collins.
“We did not march for racial justice in the streets, phone bank and go to the ballot box to have the county throw pennies at our communities,” he added.
Measure J’s original text explicitly states that its budget would be at minimum 10 percent of net county cost, which was $9.7 billion in 2020. Together, these numbers imply potential spending 
on Measure J of nearly $1 billion annually, 10 times higher than the $100 million currently proposed.
The CEO’s office notes the 10 percent requirement only goes into effect in 2024, and also implied in a memo that the 10 percent does not apply to the full net county cost, but rather a subset of the budget.
“The over 2.1 million voters who said Yes on J did so not only in support of a budget that reflects our values, but a new, transparent, and inclusive budget process,” said Brian Kaneda of Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB), a coalition of organizations working to reduce the prison population.
“Yet this action by the CEO is yet another attempt to preserve the status quo of closed-door, non-public dealing that further erodes trust in government and erases the voices of LA County residents,” he added.
Regardless of the eventual budget amount for Measure J, the county is continuing to push forward with implementation. The “Reimagine LA” Advisory Committee meets regularly to engage with the public and to recommend funding specific programs within the county.
Max Kennedy graduated from Harvard in 2016 with a degree in History. He is an intern with the San Francisco Public Defender and most recently worked as a digital organizer with Joe Biden for President.
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