NEW ORLEANS, La. — Mayor Helena Moreno’s administration on Thursday, Oct. 22, gave the New Orleans City Council a ranked list of 2027 budget cuts it would undo first if the council votes to raise property taxes by rolling millages forward.
The items add up to $27.4 million. Firefighting tops it at $8.5 million. Next come $5.6 million to keep civilian staff and crash response at the New Orleans Police Department, $5 million to keep the low-barrier homeless shelter open, and $2.5 million so the Right to Counsel program can keep giving renters facing eviction a free lawyer. Restoring full sanitation service would take another $2.4 million, and bringing back Mardi Gras cleanup would cost $1.75 million. Budget Committee Chair Lesli Harris had asked the administration for the list.
The city faces a $77 million gap in its general fund for next year. Moreno’s $763 million spending plan, filed with the council in September, would eliminate 152 full-time positions, including civilian jobs inside the police department, and trim several departments by more than 30 percent. The Health Department would take the deepest cut at 51 percent, with Public Works down 35 percent. Moreno and her top deputy are taking 10 percent pay cuts.
Rolling forward every millage tied to the general fund would raise about $21.5 million, roughly half of it locked into uses such as police, fire, parks and recreation.
Left off the mayor’s list was extra money for Criminal District Court, the public defenders and the District Attorney’s Office, as well as $1.2 million the sheriff says she needs for 27 more deputies to staff a new jail medical and mental health wing opening in November. The council has until December to settle the budget.
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