Today, BGR releases BGR Now: A Framework for Assessing New Orleans’ Proposed 2020 Budget, which outlines key findings of BGR’s recent City budget study and connects them to the current 2020 budget process to help inform citizens and policymakers.
As the New Orleans City Council holds a series of hearings on the administration’s proposed 2020 operating budget, BGR’s recent analysis of a decade’s worth of City budgets can help both policymakers and the public assess the $722 million spending plan. BGR’s report, A Look Back to Plan Ahead, analyzes growth in revenues and changes in expenditures in the City’s General Fund from 2010 to 2019 to identify how budget priorities evolved and why. The ultimate goal is helping the City identify options to reallocate existing revenues to high-priority needs. This is particularly important given the magnitude of the City’s unmet needs for improvements to drainage, streets and public services.
In addition, BGR has created a collection of links to City 2020 budget information and BGR’s recent research reports to help citizens understand the proposal in the context of recent City budget trends and local government finance.