POLB adopts $748m FY 2018 budget

The Southern California port said it plans on spending $457 million on capital projects for the 2018 fiscal year, which is for the 12-month period that begins Oct. 1, 2017.    The Port of Long Beach’s annual budget continues to shrink.
   The port said Wednesday that it’s harbor commission has approved a $748 million budget for the port’s 2018 fiscal year, which is for the 12-month period that begins Oct. 1, 2017.
   The 2018 fiscal year budget represents a $26 million drop from the previous fiscal year’s budget of $774 million, and $71 million from the 2016 fiscal year budget of $829 million.
   It’s also a far cry from the $1 billion budgets the port had approved in years past, most recently in mid-2013 for the 2014 fiscal year.
   Long Beach’s 2018 fiscal year budget projects a 1.8 percent increase in operating revenue over the current year, plus puts $16.4 million into “net position,” designating it for spending in the future, beyond fiscal year 2018.
   For the 2018 fiscal year, the port said it plans to spend $457 million on capital projects – part of this decade’s $4 billion program to increase efficiency by upgrading terminals, waterways, bridges, rail lines, marine safety and other vital infrastructure.
   Ongoing major capital improvement projects listed in the budget include the Gerald Desmond Bridge replacement, which is a $1 billion infrastructure improvement project intended to replace the span that connects downtown Long Beach to Terminal Island, home to many of the container terminals at the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles; and the Middle Harbor redevelopment, a nine-plus year, $1.2 billion project to upgrade wharfs, water access and storage areas, plus add a greatly expanded on-dock rail yard in order to create a super-terminal.
   Also as part of the approved budget is the port’s expected transfer of $18.7 million to the City of Long Beach’s Tidelands Operating Fund, which is used for beachfront improvements in Long Beach.
   The final say on whether to approve the budget goes to the Long Beach City Council, which is expected to review the matter in an upcoming meeting this summer.
   The Port of Long Beach, which is officially a department within the City of Long Beach, receives no taxpayer funding to operate the port. Port operations are supported by income from terminal leases, and fees charged to terminal companies and shipping lines for moving cargo through the port.
   In a statement, Long Beach Harbor Commission President Lori Ann Guzmán said the spending plan advances the port’s modernization program and its practice of investing revenue back into the harbor, plus reflects the port’s “fiscally prudent, results-driven approach to budgeting and capital improvements.”