Spending · Checkbook

Where does the City's money go?

The City paid $3.10B to outside payees in FY2025-26, across 532,632 payments. So far in FY2026-27 (through Oct 21) it has paid $1.15B, against $857.74M at the same point of FY2025-26 (+33.7%).

Source:Checkbook LA · Through Oct 21, 2026HistoryPayments to outside vendors for goods and services. Excludes payroll and benefits, debt, taxes, transfers to other governments, pension custody, and DWP, the airports and the harbor. The contracts total differs: it counts only payments on purchase orders and includes contract payments to LAHSA
Search every payment
$1.15BTo outside vendors · FY2026-27 to date (through Oct 21)
156,337Checks cleared
3,587Vendors paid
$7,338Average check

At the same point of FY2025-26, with payments dated through Oct 21, 2025: $857.74M across 162,167 checks. Dollars paid so far in FY2026-27: +33.7% against that.

Source:Checkbook LA · Latest check posted Oct 21, 2026
What is counted
This is the Controller's checkbook, filtered to the City's discretionary spending on outside vendors, as the Controller publishes it (the dataset lists a monthly refresh; the date chip above shows the latest payment). Stripped out: the self-funded enterprises (Water & Power, Airports, Harbor), payroll and benefit insurers (health, dental, life), transfers and payments to other governments, debt, and pension custody. What's left — about a fifth of the raw checkbook — is the contracts and services the City chooses to buy with tax dollars, this fiscal year to date.

Month by month

Payments cleared each month

Current fiscal year · outside vendors only · last check October 21, 2026

Payments cleared each month, current fiscal year
MonthPaidChecks
July 2026$288,515,11641,912
August 2026$344,347,23644,428
September 2026 (so far)$285,845,81743,915
October 2026 (so far)$228,427,07626,082

Each bar is one month of cleared payments. The brass bars are the most recent months — still settling as late payments post (the checkbook lags ~2–3 weeks), so they read low by design, not because spending fell.

Source:Checkbook LA · Latest check posted Oct 21, 2026
Explore

Where this year's money is going

The same current-year spending, three ways — by department, by vendor, and by category.

Source:Checkbook LA · Updated Oct 22, 2026

Where it goes — by department

Top 15 departments this fiscal year · outside vendors only

  1. 1Non-departmentalCitywide accounts (no bar)$427.9M
  2. 2Transportation$168.7M
  3. 3General Services$54.2M
  4. 4Housing$47.7M
  5. 5Police$39.8M
  6. 6City Clerk$36.3M
  7. 7City Administrative Officer$34.5M
  8. 8Recreation and Parks – Special Accounts$31.2M
  9. 9Public Works – Street Services$29.2M
  10. 10Library$24.3M
  11. 11Mayor$24.0M
  12. 12Community Investment$22.2M
  13. 13Recreation and Parks$20.0M
  14. 14Fire$18.5M
  15. 15Information Technology Agency$18.0M

Bars are scaled to the largest department; Non-departmental is shown as a figure only.

“Non-departmental” is the checkbook's label for citywide accounts that sit outside any department (see non-departmental accounts).

Each department's budget, staff, vendors and lawsuit payouts are on its own page: City departments.

The ledger

Every check, searchable

156,337 payments cleared so far in FY2026-27 (162,167 at the same point of FY2025-26) — every one searchable, sortable, and filterable. It's filtered to outside-vendor payments — payroll, transfers, debt, and pension custody are stripped out, so each row is the City paying an outside party. Sort by amount to find the biggest checks; search a vendor to follow the money.

Source:Checkbook LA · Updated Oct 22, 2026

Individual payments

The City's checkbook, payment by payment, as the Controller publishes it.

156,337 payments

50 of 156,337 payments

About this data

Every payment the City cleared this fiscal year, live from the Controller's checkbook (dataset pggv-e4fn on controllerdata.lacity.org). This view is filtered to outside-vendor spending — pension-fund custody, payroll and benefits, inter-agency transfers, and debt are excluded, leaving money paid to outside parties for goods and services. "Purpose" shows the City's internal payment codes, which are terse by nature.

For context

All checkbook payments by fiscal year

Every checkbook payment by fiscal year — all payment types included, so totals run higher than the fiduciary-excluded figures above.

All checkbook payments by fiscal year
Fiscal yearPaid
FY2017-18$10.7B
FY2018-19$10.9B
FY2019-20$10.9B
FY2020-21$11.1B
FY2021-22$9.9B
FY2022-23$12.0B
FY2023-24$11.3B
FY2024-25$13.2B
FY2025-26$14.2B
Source:Checkbook LA · Updated Oct 22, 2026