Long Beach officials are investigating why a new tax on local power plants hasn’t raised the millions of dollars they said it would, a major blow to the city budget that has exacerbated the need for deep cuts.
Tax Measure LB passed in November 2024 after being pitched to voters as an easy win, one that would draw $15 to $18 million a year from two natural-gas-burning facilities in East Long Beach. But according to Kevin Riper, the city’s financial management director, the money never fully materialized.
At a City Council meeting on Aug. 11, Riper said his department made “a big forecasting miss for reasons we do not yet understand.”…