More money for police, housing next year in New Orleans; see what’s in Cantrell’s 2024 budget

By Sophie Kasakove and Ben Myers

Source: The Times-Picayune | Nola.com

December 1, 2023

The New Orleans City Council is set to approve most of Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s proposed $1.57 billion city budget on Friday, with pay raises on the way for New Orleans police, more money set aside in a “rainy day” fund and increased spending on housing and quality-of-life issues.

Following two weeks of hearings that saw pleas for more funding from District Attorney Jason Williams, Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson and other public officials, Cantrell aides and council members hammered out an additional $56 million in spending on a variety of programs, along with several major capital budget expenditures, including on affordable housing.

Williams’ request for a nearly 50% increase to his $9.6 million budget allocation went unheeded, however, as did the request from Hutson for an additional $13 million for her $55.7 million allocation. Both had said they needed the funding to increase their staff and better retain existing employees.

But the New Orleans Police Department, which has been plagued by officer retirements and trouble recruiting, will get enough additional funding to provide 5% across-the-board pay raises and merit pay for officers.

The hearings and subsequent negotiations maintained a cooperative tone, in contrast to a series of clashes between Cantrell and council members on other issues over the last two years.

Pandemic relief funds and rising revenues helped, offering a cushion that will allow the administration to stock away tens of millions of dollars in rainy day funds while also providing for new initiatives around housing, long-overdue repairs and other city needs.

Cantrell said Wednesday that she and her team had spoken individually with every council member after the budget hearings, and that “there are no priorities that are unaligned.”

“We feel very good about it,” Cantrell said.

The second of a three-year Cantrell fiscal plan, the coming year’s budget priorities mostly aligned with last year’s. Spending was aimed at tackling the city’s chronic issues: public safety, infrastructure and improving the daily lives of residents.

“This budget represents the city’s focus on quality of life,” said District A Council member and Budget Committee Chairman Joe Giarrusso in a prepared statement. “We have prioritized these objectives through various agencies, including blight remediation, continued staff recruitment for public safety agencies and continued services for residents.”

The budget includes a general fund investment in the New Orleans Police Department of $155 million, which is the largest single department under Cantrell’s control. The mayor’s proposed budget indicates the city wants to add 120 new recruits “while retaining 90-95%” of its current force. Crime analyst Jeff Asher last week said based on current retention and recruitment trends, the public should expect the city to maintain, rather than grow, its existing force.

The council and administration have also agreed to allocate $8 million to fund long-overdue repairs to the historic Upper Pontalba apartment building in the city’s capital budget, according to Aimee McCarron, policy director for Giarrusso’s office.

The budget also maintains a substantial reserve fund of roughly $130 million for the city to dip into in case of emergencies, according to Giarrusso’s office. Before the city was able to beef up its reserves with federal COVID relief dollars, its year-end general fund reserves hovered around $50 million, according to a report from the Bureau of Governmental Research.

Not everyone got what they wanted. Advocates were disappointed to see certain programs to expand after school, mental health and workforce development programming within the Office of Youth and Families missing from the budget, said Sarah Omojola, director of the Louisiana office of the Vera Institute of Justice.

A budget proposal compiled by a coalition of advocacy organizations including the Vera Institute, called the Big Easy Budget Coalition, called for an investment of around $15 million to support collaboration on youth programs between the Office of Youth and Families and the Children and Youth Planning Board.

The programs received just $600,000, according to Omojola.

Increased housing spending
The budget marks a significant increase in the city’s investment in housing programs. The largest bucket of funds related to housing is $17 million for affordable housing development that the council and administration have agreed to allocate into the capital budget.

The funds will be the first investment into an affordable housing trust fund that was created by the council in early November. District B Council member Lesli Harris said the council hopes to put a charter amendment on the ballot in next year’s election that would allow voters to make the item a permanent budget fixture.

The Healthy Homes program — a new effort to protect renters who report problems with their units and to create a rental unit registry — received an allocation of $2.5 million.

The program was left out of Cantrell’s proposed budget but fully funded through the budget amendment process after council members raised concerns about lack of staffing to carry out the new program.

Another $2.4 million will fund the “right to counsel” program, which provides legal representation for evicted tenants.

“Up to this point, the city hasn’t really been investing its own city funds into housing priorities,” said Monique Blossom, Director of Policy & Communications for the Louisiana Fair Housing Action Center, noting that the city has mostly relied on federal grants to fund affordable housing development. “I think it’s really significant that the City Council has made that a priority and is showing that to be a priority with such a significant investment.”

The council will convene Friday morning to vote on the proposed budget and amendments.

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