What $231 Million Could Buy | Nithya Raman for Mayor
convention center funding
$231,000,000

This is what Los Angeles is set to spend yearly for the Convention Center expansion. $5.1 billion in lease revenue bonds and debt servicing over 30 years18, adding an estimated $110 million a year burden to the general fund starting in 202819. None of it repairs a sidewalk, lights a street, or improves dispatch times. Every dollar is currently committed to that expansion, but we want to ask "What if we put that money elsewhere?" Scroll to see what we could do.

City of Los Angeles · Convention Center expansion
$5,900,000,000

A $470M expansion, authorized in 2015, that has and will continue to balloon while interest and the debt are paid. Scroll to watch the budget grow.

Initial authorized budget 2015
$0.47B

What the City authorized to expand the Convention Center. $470,000,000.

Final project budget Built cost
$3.05B

After capitalized interest and bond insurance. $3,050,000,000. This is six and a half times the original authorization.

Total cost after debt payments Lifetime
$5.90B

What Angelenos actually repay over the life of the bonds. $5,900,000,000 from a touted $470M expansion.

And that is the point

A $470M project that costs $5.9B to pay off. Scroll on to see what else that money could do.

Bars to scale · full width = $5.9B lifetime cost spent $0 of $5.9B

But what if we spent it on the basics?

We made a tool so you can see how that money could work harder for the city.

Drag the sliders below to explore what we could’ve done
Still committed to the Convention Center
$231,000,000
The status quo. This is where the money is going.
Redirected to city services
$0
Nothing moved yet.
Every Convention Center dollar has been redirected into services.

What $231 Million Buys

Total redirected to services $0
Right now, all $231 Million of this stays with the Convention Center expansion.
Prototype · Figures pending final verification

It never breaks even.

Drag through 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.

nominal dollars
FY2029 FY2058 · CAO ends ~2080

Nominal dollars. The CAO table is nominal, so the late-2050s surpluses are worth far less in today's money .

This is the optimistic case. The CAO excludes lifecycle costs, future capital improvements, and the Gilbert Lindsay Plaza redevelopment, and states that the impact “will be greater if the Operating Revenues and tax contributions do not materialize as planned.”

Everything past FY2058 is our extrapolation, not the CAO's. The dashed segment merely continues the final years' surplus rate; at that pace the cumulative cost would not return to zero until roughly 2080 — 22 years after the projection ends.

Full 30-year projection table (nominal $ thousands)
The CAO’s 30-year projection for the Convention Center expansion, FY2029–2058, in thousands of nominal dollars. Figures in the source shown in parentheses are negative here. The cumulative column is derived by summing the General Fund impact; every other column is the CAO’s. FY2057–58 carry no debt service because the final lease payment is made in FY2056, which is why those two years show a surplus.
FY Total revenues Operating cost Net debt service Incremental tax GF impact Cumulative
2029 37,167 −40,040 −40,734 628 −42,979 −42,979
2030 67,348 −41,681 −145,457 6,922 −112,869 −155,848
2031 78,126 −42,899 −192,695 9,469 −147,999 −303,847
2032 82,660 −44,063 −192,690 13,216 −140,876 −444,723
2033 87,766 −45,378 −192,688 12,967 −137,332 −582,055
2034 93,063 −46,474 −192,689 13,844 −132,257 −714,312
2035 95,283 −47,622 −192,687 15,612 −129,413 −843,725
2036 98,001 −48,812 −192,687 16,786 −126,711 −970,436
2037 100,758 −50,033 −192,684 17,626 −124,332 −1,094,768
2038 103,552 −51,432 −192,689 18,134 −122,436 −1,217,204
2039 105,385 −52,562 −192,689 18,712 −121,154 −1,338,358
2040 108,330 −53,877 −192,684 18,757 −119,474 −1,457,832
2041 112,018 −55,239 −192,686 20,277 −115,630 −1,573,462
2042 115,189 −56,620 −192,684 22,761 −111,355 −1,684,817
2043 118,450 −58,206 −192,684 21,930 −110,509 −1,795,326
2044 121,748 −59,488 −192,688 22,385 −108,042 −1,903,368
2045 125,136 −60,975 −192,690 23,031 −105,498 −2,008,866
2046 128,191 −62,678 −192,689 23,421 −103,556 −2,112,422
2047 131,811 −64,040 −192,690 26,646 −98,273 −2,210,695
2048 135,539 −65,834 −192,684 24,458 −98,521 −2,309,216
2049 138,072 −67,284 −192,690 26,573 −95,329 −2,404,545
2050 142,307 −68,976 −192,689 27,373 −91,986 −2,496,531
2051 145,809 −70,676 −192,685 28,348 −89,204 −2,585,735
2052 149,956 −72,443 −192,688 30,824 −84,350 −2,670,085
2053 154,228 −74,472 −192,688 29,836 −83,096 −2,753,181
2054 158,532 −76,113 −192,685 30,686 −79,580 −2,832,761
2055 162,952 −78,016 −192,686 31,662 −76,087 −2,908,848
2056 166,961 −79,938 −128,389 31,934 −9,432 −2,918,280
2057 171,702 −81,936 — 37,759 127,525 −2,790,755
2058 176,483 −84,229 — 32,692 124,946 −2,665,809
Total 3,612,523 −1,802,036 −5,131,768 655,269 −2,665,809 −2,665,809
Still committed $231,000,000
Redirected $0