Dear Honorable Members of the Committees:
In response to the request from the Office of Councilmember Ed Reyes, Los Angeles City Council, the Economic Roundtable has produced this briefing paper estimating the economic impacts of the city’s purchases, as well as the share of these impacts that occur outside of Los Angeles.
We estimate that $1.1 billion in economic impacts generated by city purchases occur outside of Los Angeles County. There are opportunities to implement import substitution strategies to increase Los Angeles’ share of beneficial economic impacts from city purchases. Import substitution strategies will be most beneficial if they help build growth momentum for industries that are beneficial to Los Angeles because they:
- Are competitive in terms of cost and quality
- Show evidence of having the potential to grow in Los Angeles
- Pay living wages
- Contribute to a sustainable environment
