Department of Law – BGA Policy 2027 Budget Snapshot

From 2011-2026, DoL budget grew at an average rate of 2.1% annually, working out to less than a -0.1% decline when adjusted for inflation through 2025, compared to a citywide average rate of 5.5% (inflation-adjusted 3.2%). The current proposal would increase the department's appropriations by 5.7% from the previous year.

Estimated Fringe Costs

City budgets do not break out "fringe" pension and benefit costs for non-grant positions by department, instead grouping them together as citywide expenses under the Finance General section of the budget. To better reflect the real cost of service for departmental operations, BGA Policy has included an estimate of pension and benefit costs for the years 2018-2026, using Department of Finance fringe memos from each relevant year. An estimated fringe cost for the 2027 proposal uses the average annual rate of increase for each of the inputs into the fringe formulae.

Based on the city's fringe formulae, the DoL fringe cost for nongrant employees averaged 44.2% from 2018-2026, compared to a citywide average of 26.8%.

Local Fund Actual Spend

Over the past four complete budget years for which local fund actuals/encumbrances data is available, DoL spent on average 88% of its locally funded budget, compared to the citywide average 86.6% local fund spend.

Budgeted Positions & Vacancies

Staffing levels remained fairly consistent for most of DoL's recent history, with cuts in 2020 and 2024 only partially offset by subsequent year-over-year increases. Overall, the department's budgeted headcount from 2011-2025 declined at an average rate of -0.2% annually, compared to a citywide average annual change of -0.1%.. The current proposal would increase budgeted headcount by four from the previous year, a 1% increase.

From January through September of 2026, the months for which full-time position vacancy data is currently available, DoL averaged a 13.1% vacancy rate, compared to the citywide average of 11.2%.

22 of the department's budgeted full-time positions were persistent vacancies (defined as the number of positions within the same combination of title, subsection, section, division, department, and fund codes that remained vacant in all nine months of available data):