LOS ANGELES IS SPENDING $5.9 BILLION TO EXPAND OUR CONVENTION CENTER.

THIS WILL COST TAXPAYERS AROUND $100 MILLION A YEAR1 FOR THE NEXT 30 YEARS.

That’s $100 million that won’t be available to spend on infrastructure, public safety, or city services.

Background
$0
When the city first proposed expanding the convention center in 2015, the budget was expected to be:
$470M
Over the next 10 years, the project was repeatedly delayed, and costs ballooned.
The final project budget:
$3.05B

After capitalized interest and bond insurance. This is six and a half times the original budget.

Total cost after debt payments:
$5.90B

What Los Angeles will actually pay over the life of the bonds.

The convention center expansion made sense in 2015 at $470 million. But is it a good use of money when it costs 12x as much?

Bars to scale · full width = $5.9B lifetime cost spent $470.00M of $5.9B

But what if we had
spent it on the basics?

$100 million. Every year. Until 2055. That’s how much LA taxpayers are spending on the convention center. What if that money went back to the basics? We built this calculator to put your $100M back in your pocket. Pick your priorities and see how far your money could really go.

Drag the sliders to see what $100 million could fund in your neighborhood, every year

Money left to spend:
$100,000,000
Remaining LA taxpayer dollars
Added to the budget:
$0
What you just bought LA
Every Convention Center dollar has been redirected into services.

What $100 Million Buys

Total added to the budget for city services $0

The
Convention
Center Will
Never Break
Even.

Scroll ↓

The shape
of the debt

According to the CAO's analysis, over the entire lifespan of the convention center, this expansion will never break even. Extrapolating this data, it would take until 2080.

And the estimates
are optimistic

But that's not all. Experts believe that the CAO's revenue estimates are optimistic.

"There's every indication that the revenues that the CAO's staff have estimated are very unlikely to occur for a number of reasons, which means the fiscal implications are far more serious, indeed dire, than I think the council and the mayor and ultimately the public have been led to believe."

Heywood Sanders

Professor Emeritus of Public Administration at the University of Texas at San Antonio
Expert on public projects & government spending

Read More: Why this convention center expert is calling LA's expansion plan a disaster — Torched →

Every year
adds to it

Drag through the graphic to see the city's own 30-year projection. Every year adds to the running General Fund cost, and the line never climbs back to zero. This is the CAO's optimistic case.

After the full 30-year operating period, the city is still $2.67B down. The CAO's own projection never breaks even.

nominal dollars

"There's every indication that the revenues that the CAO's staff have estimated are very unlikely to occur for a number of reasons, which means the fiscal implications are far more serious, indeed dire, than I think the council and the mayor and ultimately the public have been led to believe."

Heywood Sanders

Professor Emeritus of Public Administration at the University of Texas at San Antonio
Expert on public projects & government spending

Read More: Why this convention center expert is calling LA's expansion plan a disaster — Torched →
FY2029 FY2058 · CAO ends ~2080
Remaining $100,000,000
Redirected $0