New Orleans City Council approves 2024 budget with funding for police and housing

By Sophie Kasakove

Source: The Times-Picayune | Nola.com

December 1, 2023

The New Orleans City Council approved the city’s $1.57 billion budget on Friday, greenlighting most of the spending that Mayor LaToya Cantrell proposed for 2024.

That budget, along with an additional $56 million in spending on a variety of programs, was approved without controversy, following weeks of mostly collaborative negotiations between the council and Cantrell administration. officials

The budget promises pay raises for New Orleans police, increased spending on housing, and more money set aside in a “rainy day” fund. The priorities— public safety, infrastructure and improving the daily lives of residents— are mostly aligned with last year’s, as the second budget of a three-year Cantrell fiscal plan.

The three-year plan “will leverage our influx of one-time funds to reset, re-stabilize and establish a ‘new normal’ of operations over the next three years and beyond,” said Cantrell in a prepared statement, referring to the city’s use of federal COVID relief funds. “The 2023 budget laid the foundation, and now, 2024 is all about execution and providing high-level service to residents, businesses and visitors, while making continued investments in our dedicated workforce.”

Chief Administrative Officer Gilbert Montaño lauded the budget’s investments in public safety and social services following the council’s vote.

He also celebrated the “huge reserve fund for the unanticipated emergencies that should and will arrive in the city of New Orleans.”

The budget includes a reserve fund of roughly $130 million. 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.

At the same time as the administration has celebrated the reserves as a tool for maintaining the city’s economic health, advocates have questioned whether those funds could be better spent on residents’ needs.

“It’s clear that the city has recovered well from the pandemic but the people have not,” said Sarah Omojola, director of the Louisiana office of the Vera Institute of Justice. “The money that has been squirreled away into a very large additional reserve should be used for recovery to address inequity and poverty and not just saved.”

In addition to the $56 million omnibus amendment, council members adopted two other amendments to increase oversight of certain city agencies’ budgets.

One, introduced by City Council President JP Morrell, gives the council authority over $3 million of the law department’s budget for 90 days.

In November, council members blasted City Attorney Donesia Turner over the city’s handling of the federal consent decree governing New Orleans police and questioned why the council hadn’t been consulted on the city’s strategy. The council earlier froze nearly $7 million from the city attorney’s budget for outside counsel.

“Until we as a council feel like the law department is truly going to be communicating with this council and treat us like the other client they have, this gives us another 90-day window to improve communication,” said Morrell.

Another amendment introduced by City Council Vice President Helena Moreno, put a half million dollars from the operating budget of the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office into a temporary escrow.

The move was taken in response to what Moreno said was the department’s lack of transparency with the council about the uses of a “Special Project Fund.”

In a letter sent to Sheriff Susan Hutson on Nov. 14, Moreno requested information regarding the fund to be shared with the council before it approved the budget on Dec. 1.

The office failed to share those details by Friday, Moreno said.

CORRECTION: Earlier versions of this article gave an incorrect dollar figure for the size of the budget.

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