Sources, live data and freshness

What counts as a social program

City payments count when the paying department's name includes Housing, Homeless, Community Investment, Aging, Disability, Youth Development, Economic and Workforce Development, or Civil and Human Rights, or when the payee is the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.

County spending counts when its budget function is Public Assistance or Health and Sanitation.

The rule is published and applied to every row the same way. Developers can change it in core/ingest/importers.py, and the change applies across the site.

Monthly spending updates

No LA government publishes its payments more often than monthly. The City Controller posts Checkbook L.A. about once a month. The County's open budget data updates less often. Tally LA checks each source every night, so new data appears the day it is published. The Sources page lists each publisher's last-updated date.

Votes happen weekly, but a vote does not move money that day. It authorizes spending. Money moves later, when accounts are funded, contracts are signed and bills are paid. The Money timeline page lists each step.