New Orleans City Council to ask state auditor to review budget deficit as confusion grows

By Blake Paterson

Source: The Times-Picayune | Nola.com

September 19, 2025

The New Orleans City Council is planning to ask the state’s top auditor to examine the city’s finances and provide clarity on the size of its budget deficit after a city budget hearing this week left council members with more questions than answers.

The 2025 budget deficit — the difference between the budgeted expenses and revenue and the actual spending and collections that accrue over the year — is more than $100 million, according to Councilmember Joe Giarrusso and the Bureau of Governmental Research. That amount includes a $73 million personnel cost overrun and a $30.5 million reduction in estimated revenue.

But officials with New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s administration, while reporting the cost overrun and certifying the reduced revenue estimate, have not provided a number for the budget deficit, and at a budget committee meeting Wednesday, offered a different measure of the city’s financial health that council members said was a separate issue.

On Thursday, the Council is expected to vote on a resolution asking Louisiana Legislative Auditor Mike Waguespack “to determine the existence and extent of any budget deficit” and, if necessary, offer recommendations for digging out of its shortfall, according to draft legislation sponsored by Councilmembers Helena Moreno, JP Morell and Giarrusso.

Waguespack said Moreno called him Friday morning to request his assistance and he told her he’s happy to help. He said his office plans to start compiling records next week and could have a report ready as early as the following week.

Moreno, who shared the draft resolution with the Times-Picayune, said she and Giarrusso decided to ask for Waguespack’s assistance after they reviewed numbers provided by the Cantrell administration and realized they “didn’t calculate right.”

“I think it’s a really important step so that we finally end all this confusion and have a full understanding of the problem and can move forward on finding a solution,” Moreno said.

“We need a common set of facts,” Giarrusso said.

Cantrell’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.

Hiring freeze and furloughs?
Council members and administration officials have argued since January about the condition of the city’s finances, and the argument continued at some length at Wednesday’s committee meeting. Council members said they’ve received mixed messages, while Finance Director Romy Schofield-Samuel said her warnings had been written off.

By the end of the meeting, however, council members and administration officials agreed city finances needed urgent attention and seemed to reach a truce, albeit a shaky one.

Chief Administrative Officer Joe Threat said he will soon propose a package of revenue and savings measures, some of which will require council action. Those measures could include overtime restrictions, a more expansive hiring freeze and furloughs, though officials say they want to avoid furloughs if at all possible.

The proposals notably did not include any new fee proposals, which have been publicly contemplated in other recent meetings. They do include new debt: Cantrell’s administration is considering bond sales to dig out of the budget hole.

The budget deficit has emerged as a frequent subject of debate on the campaign trail among candidates, including Moreno, vying to succeed Cantrell in the Oct. 11 primary.

State Sen. Royce Duplessis, another candidate for mayor, said he’d order a “hard audit” of the budget within his first 60 days of taking office. He also criticized Moreno in a social media video Thursday for not attending the budget committee meeting the day before.

“I don’t know why Helena Moreno was not at the meeting, but I think somebody that is running to be a ’24/7 mayor’ … should at least be at a meeting to talk about a budget deficit that we’re facing,” Duplessis said in the video.

Asked to respond to Duplessis’ criticism, Moreno said she’s been in frequent contact with Giarrusso “for quite some time” over budget concerns and will continue to work on finding solutions.

“Ultimately it’s about who is doing the work and who is finding solutions,” Moreno said.

Staff writer Ben Myers contributed to this report.

Fair Use Notice

This site occasionally reprints copyrighted material, the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We make such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of issues and to highlight the accomplishments of our affiliates. We believe this constitutes a “fair use” of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is available without profit. For more information go to: US CODE: Title 17,107. Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond “fair use,” you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.