Questions for a New Parish Council is the second in a two-part 2019 Candidate Q&A Election Series providing the views of candidates for Jefferson Parish government on important public policy issues, such as tax dedications and contracting.
Questions for a New Parish Council provides voters with the candidates’ answers to 16 questions developed from BGR’s body of research. They address a broad range of topics, including: managing the Parish’s General Fund budget amid extensive tax dedications; investing in essential infrastructure; improving Parish contracting; sustaining East Jefferson General Hospital; and ensuring ethical government. BGR also explores the candidates’ views on topics that affect citizens’ daily lives, including public transit, economic development and the quality of life in the parish. Questions for a New Parish Council also asked the candidates to propose specific ideas for how they would make Parish government work better for the citizens it serves.
BGR is a nonpartisan organization that does not endorse any candidates for public office. The purpose of this report series is to help voters make informed decisions in the October 12 elections in Jefferson Parish and provide a basis for them to hold elected officials accountable for campaign positions.
On April 4, 2024, BGR provided research-based guidance to New Orleans City Council leaders as they review economic development incentive programs. Our letter to the council president and vice president draws on our extensive body of work on property tax subsidies authorized by payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) programs. The council leaders announced their […]
Property taxes are a basic means of financing local government, but the public faces a confusing array of tax rates, taxing bodies and dedicated purposes across the New Orleans region. To help explain these taxes, the Bureau of Governmental Research (BGR) today launched an interactive, online tool. BGR’s property tax dashboards for Jefferson, Orleans, and St. Tammany […]
In a November 28 letter to the City Council, BGR recommends that the council create a formal process to objectively evaluate S&WB funding proposals for the city’s water, sewer and drainage systems. BGR also recommends that the council develop a stronger framework for oversight that relies more on regular accountability, instead of the council’s control […]
This BGR NOW report urges the City of New Orleans and the Orleans Parish Sheriff to resolve a long-running disagreement over funding the jail. The dispute flared anew last fall when the City Council denied the Sheriff’s request for a $12.4 million funding increase. Voters subsequently rejected a Sheriff’s Office proposal to increase its property […]
OVERVIEW These On the Ballot reports inform New Orleans voters about three propositions on the October 14, 2023 ballot: the renewal of a property tax for public school facilities and charter amendments on code enforcement and the City budget process. The Orleans Parish School Board is seeking to renew a property tax of up to 4.97 […]
OVERVIEW Today, BGR sent a letter to the mayor and the New Orleans City Council urging greater planning and public reporting for the City of New Orleans’ use of its primary financial reserve. The City Council’s budget committee is meeting tomorrow, May 23, to consider more than $73 million in appropriations from this reserve, called […]
OVERVIEW In this letter to the Jefferson Parish Council, BGR recommends ways in which the council can improve planning and public reporting for one-time spending made possible by the receipt of federal pandemic relief funds through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). In June 2022, the council allocated the Parish’s $84 million of ARPA funds […]
OVERVIEW In this report, BGR explores how the City of New Orleans has deployed pandemic relief funds it received through the federal American Rescue Plan Act, and what impacts this unprecedented one-time money had on City finances and budget priorities.
OVERVIEW In this On the Ballot report, BGR analyzes a new 7-mill, 10-year property tax for the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office on the April 30, 2022 ballot.
OVERVIEW This report calls on more government entities in Louisiana to livestream and archive video recordings of their meetings online, so citizens can continue to enjoy the benefits of remote access as pandemic restrictions ease and in-person meetings resume. During the COVID-19 pandemic, citizens gained new access to the meetings of many public bodies in […]
OVERVIEW In this release, Handle with Care: Public Planning and Accountability Must Guide Spending of Federal Relief Funds, BGR offers guidance to government entities on harnessing the opportunities presented by unprecedented federal funding to spur recovery from the pandemic’s economic, fiscal and health impacts.
OVERVIEW On the Ballot: Jefferson Parish Water and Sewer Taxes, March 20, 2021 provides voters in Jefferson Parish with analysis of two property tax propositions to replace existing water and sewer system taxes. Although the propositions will appear as separate items on the March 20 ballot, BGR analyzed them together because of their similarities. The […]
OVERVIEW As a nationwide search begins for New Orleans’ next inspector general, this report analyzes key components of the selection process and future oversight of the inspector general. It examines recent measures taken or proposed to improve each area and recommends additional improvements. Recent problems within the New Orleans Office of Inspector General (OIG), including […]
OVERVIEW On the Ballot: New Orleans Property Tax Propositions, December 5, 2020 analyzes three propositions to replace several City of New Orleans property taxes that expire at the end of 2021. The replacement taxes would have the same combined rate of 5.82 mills as the existing taxes. However, the propositions would change the tax dedications. […]
Overview On the Ballot: Jefferson Parish Inspector General Tax Renewal, November 3, 2020 is intended to help voters in the unincorporated areas of Jefferson Parish make an informed decision on whether to renew a 10-year, 0.5-mill property tax dedicated to the Office of Inspector General and the Ethics and Compliance Commission. While the tax is […]
OVERVIEW Welcome to the inaugural edition of PolicyWatch, a periodic newsletter that draws on BGR’s body of independent, nonpartisan research to address current public policy issues. This edition focuses on the City of New Orleans’ finances as it faces a pandemic-induced budget deficit. It discusses the City’s proposal to borrow up to $100 million as […]
OVERVIEW Conventional Wisdom: Pausing the Convention Hotel Deal to Assess the Pandemic’s Impact and Reduce Public Costs calls for reassessing the hotel project’s feasibility and reducing the cost of the public’s contributions.
OVERVIEW As the City Council reviews the proposed $722 million 2020 operating budget, BGR Now: A Framework for Assessing New Orleans’ Proposed 2020 Budget outlines key findings of BGR’s recent City budget study to help inform citizens and policymakers. BGR’s study, A Look Back to Plan Ahead, analyzes growth in revenues and changes in expenditures […]
Overview On the Ballot: New Orleans Bond and Tax Propositions, November 16, 2019 studies three propositions to let the City issue bonds for capital improvements, levy a new tax for maintenance, and levy a new tax on short-term rentals. If voters approve, the City of New Orleans would be able to: Issue up to $500 […]
Overview A Look Back to Plan Ahead: Analyzing Past New Orleans Budgets to Guide Funding Priorities reviews a decade of City General Fund budgets. It also lays a foundation for examining potential opportunities to reallocate revenue to critical needs.
Overview Questions for a New Parish Council is the second in a two-part 2019 Candidate Q&A Election Series providing the views of candidates for Jefferson Parish government on important public policy issues, such as tax dedications and contracting. Questions for a New Parish Council provides voters with the candidates’ answers to 16 questions developed from […]
Overview Questions for a New Parish President is the first in a two-part 2019 Candidate Q&A Election Series providing the views of candidates for Jefferson Parish president on important public policy issues affecting Parish government. Questions for a New Parish President provides voters with the candidates’ answers to 16 questions developed from BGR’s body of […]
Overview The report analyzes a May 4, 2019 tax proposition in Jefferson Parish for a new 7.9-mill tax to fund pay raises for teachers and other school employees. The new tax would run for 10 years, beginning in 2019. It is expected to generate $28.8 million in the first year. If voters approve the tax, […]
Overview In this report, BGR compares Orleans Parish hotel taxes to best practices for taxation as well as state and national norms, focusing primarily on the share of revenue available for general municipal purposes.
OVERVIEW Today BGR releases three reports on Jefferson Parish tax renewals for drainage works, juvenile services, and animal shelter and health services that voters will consider on November 6, 2018. If approved, each tax would be renewed for 10 years, from 2021 to 2030. On the Ballot: Jefferson Drainage Property Tax Renewal Voters in Jefferson […]
OVERVIEW This On the Ballot report reviews a constitutional amendment on the November 6, 2018 ballot that would allow eligible homeowners to phase in an increase in property taxes resulting from a reappraisal. The four-year phase-in process would apply only to residential properties subject to the homestead exemption that increase in assessed value by more […]
Overview Today, BGR releases an open letter to the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. The letter sets forth BGR’s concerns about a Convention Center consultant’s recent analysis of the feasibility and economic impact of a proposed 1,200-room convention hotel. The letter seeks to reconcile the consultant’s findings with the analysis in BGR’s July 19 […]
OVERVIEW In this report, BGR provides an analytical framework for evaluating the necessity and size of a private development team’s requested public contributions to design, build and operate a 1,200-room hotel attached to the New Orleans Ernest N Morial Convention Center. BGR estimates the proposed contributions – some of which would remain in place for 40 […]
OVERVIEW This report is the latest installment in BGR’s Candidate Q&A Election Series. The new report consolidates and reissues the responses of the newly elected City of New Orleans mayor and councilmembers who completed BGR’s surveys last fall on important issues facing City government. We encourage citizens to revisit the issues by reviewing the BGR […]
OVERVIEW BGR examines the April 28, 2018, proposition before voters on the west bank of Jefferson Parish to approve a new property tax for the West Jefferson Levee District. This is the Levee District’s second attempt at a new tax to cover the increased costs of raising and armoring levees and maintaining pump stations. The […]
Overview BGR’s On the Ballot report examines the proposed 10-year property tax millage to provide additional funding to increase the pay of Jefferson Parish School Board teachers and other employees.
Overview BGR’s On the Ballot report examines the proposed amendment on the November 18, 2017, ballot to establish the Savings Fund of the City of New Orleans in the City’s home rule charter.
Overview BGR examines propositions on the October 14, 2017 ballot for 10-year renewal of two existing property taxes to operate and maintain Jefferson Parish’s public transportation system. The report examines a number of issues related to Jefferson transit, including route inefficiencies identified in a Regional Planning Commission study and challenges connecting with public transit in […]
Overview For the October 14, 2017 primary elections in New Orleans, BGR provided voters with its 2017 Candidate Q&A Election Series. BGR submitted questions to all mayoral and City Council candidates on public safety, infrastructure and other important public policy issues facing the City of New Orleans government. BGR compiled the answers of the candidates who […]
Overview Paying for Streets: Options for Funding Road Maintenance in New Orleans explores ways to fund the routine maintenance necessary to safeguard the City’s $2 billion, once-in-a-lifetime capital investment in the street network.
Overview BGR’s On the Ballot report examines the proposition on the April 29, 2017 ballot for 10-year renewal of an existing property tax for Jefferson Parish public libraries.
Overview Beneath the Surface: A Primer on Stormwater Fees in New Orleans explores a funding mechanism for drainage that is expanding in usage nationwide as an alternative to ad valorem property taxes.
Overview BGR studies four dedicated taxes up for renewal on the December 10, 2016 in Jefferson Parish: a sales tax for parish sewerage, road and drainage projects, law enforcement and municipal governments in Jefferson; and three property taxes for parish drainage, recreation and public schools.
Overview BGR reviews two property tax propositions on the ballot in New Orleans on December 10, 2016: a tax increase for fire protection services for the City of New Orleans and a tax renewal for the Sewerage & Water Board’s drainage system.
Overview BGR analyzes a November 8, 2016 proposition that would amend New Orleans’ charter to allow for the permanent separation of the Independent Police Monitor from the Office of Inspector General.
Overview In Convention Center Bill Highlights Need to Rethink Local Taxation, BGR addresses a bill that would grant taxing authority to the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center’s economic development district. The release calls for a comprehensive re-evaluation of Orleans Parish taxes, with an eye toward aligning tax revenues with the city’s most pressing needs.
Overview BGR explains and analyzes two tax propositions in New Orleans on April 9, 2016: one for street work and other improvements, and a second for the police and fire departments.
Overview BGR analyzes two property tax propositions meant to sustain west bank flood protection systems and three proposed St. Tammany charter amendments before voters on November 21, 2015. The tax propositions include a new tax for the West Jefferson Levee District and a tax renewal for the Algiers Levee District in New Orleans. Both levee […]
Overview This On the Ballot report informs voters in the October 24, 2015 election about a proposed quarter-cent sales tax for public safety in New Orleans’ French Quarter and a constitutional amendment allowing the State of Louisiana to invest in an infrastructure bank.
Overview BGR reviews a proposed property tax for the upkeep of public school facilities in New Orleans and 11 propositions to amend the Jefferson Parish charter that voters will decide on December 6, 2014. The charter propositions relate to: Modifying the Jefferson Parish Council’s authority to investigate parish affairs Limiting the outside employment of the […]
Overview BGR examines two proposed amendments to the Home Rule Charter of the City of New Orleans, one Orleans Parish property tax proposition and two constitutional amendments on the ballot for November 4, 2014. One City charter amendment would incorporate certain professional services contracting reforms made in 2010. The other charter amendment would move the […]
On July 22, 2014, hundreds of citizens and a number of government officials turned up at a citywide meeting hosted by the Fix My Streets campaign and the Lakeview Civic Improvement Association to discuss options for addressing New Orleans’ bumpy street network. The dialogue centered on the need to determine the condition of city streets, […]
Overview In an open letter to the Jefferson Parish Council, BGR comments on a proposed ordinance that would change the parish’s process for awarding nonprofessional service contracts.
Overview In this release, BGR points out that the disarray enveloping the Jefferson Parish Council’s hospital lease process stems from contracting problems BGR has previously identified.
Overview In On the Ballot: October 19, 2013, BGR explains, analyzes and takes positions on three tax propositions on the ballot in Jefferson Parish and two proposed charter amendments in New Orleans, one of which would reform the Sewerage & Water Board. The Jefferson tax propositions are renewals of property taxes for the Jefferson Parish […]
Overview In this release, BGR examines a 2013 legislative proposal to authorize a hotel assessment in New Orleans. For hotel guests, the assessment would be the functional equivalent of a new hotel tax.
Overview In this letter to the Jefferson Parish Charter Advisory Board, BGR recommends changes to the parish charter in the area of contracting. Among other things, BGR recommends assigning responsibility for the contracting process from the Jefferson Parish Council to the Parish President.
Overview In this release, BGR looks at a proposed Jefferson Parish Council ordinance to reform one area of service contracting in parish government.
Overview In On the Ballot: November 6, 2012, BGR examines three proposed constitutional amendments, two propositions pertaining to multiple parishes in the New Orleans area, a proposed change to the City of New Orleans charter and two local tax propositions. The three constitutional amendments would strengthen gun rights, provide an additional homestead exemption to spouses […]
In this report, BGR analyzes service contracting in Jefferson Parish and makes recommendations for reforms.
This edition of Now looks at the recent move in the Louisiana State Legislature to defund the state Office of Inspector General.
Overview BGR examines charter amendments, tax propositions and state constitutional amendments on the October and November 2011 ballots. The October 22 ballot includes a Jefferson Parish charter amendment to establish the Office of Inspector General and an Ethics and Compliance Commission, as well as a related property tax to fund both entities. It also includes […]
Overview On the Ballot: Jefferson Parish, April 30, 2011 examines four proposed tax renewals. One is a sales tax renewal for the Jefferson Parish Public School System. The other three are property tax renewals that support Jefferson Parish drainage, juvenile services, and a combination of the Parish’s animal shelters and public health facilities and the […]
Overview The Bureau of Governmental Research made presentations before the New Orleans Tax Fairness Commission on February 3, 2011 and February 23, 2011. The first presentation, Taxation in New Orleans, examines the City’s tax picture, with particular emphasis on property taxes. It provides an overview of the tax structure and discusses issues related to exemptions […]
Overview On November 24, BGR sent a letter to the Mayor and City Council on the proposed 2011 budget for the City of New Orleans. The letter contains suggestions that would free up millions of dollars.
BGR analyzes 10 State constitutional amendments on the ballot for November 2, 2010. The amendments concern a wide variety of issues, including: Salary increases for elected officials Allocation of State of Louisiana severance taxes Property tax exemption for disabled veterans Limiting tax increases for non-elected taxing authorities Extending the period following a disaster for retaining […]
Overview In The Price of Civilization: Addressing Infrastructure Needs in New Orleans, BGR provides information on New Orleans’ core infrastructure needs – including streets, the systems of the Sewerage & Water Board of New Orleans, schools and the Orleans Parish jail – and assesses the community’s capacity to fund those needs.
Overview In Forgotten Promises: The Lost Connection Between the Homestead Exemption and the Revenue Sharing Fund, BGR examines the decline of the State of Louisiana’s funding mechanism for compensating local taxing bodies for the costs of the homestead exemption. The report provides data on compensation for New Orleans, Jefferson Parish and St. Tammany Parish.
Overview In this letter to the members of the Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee of the State Legislature, BGR opposes any dilution of the state’s open meetings laws. The letter comes in response to a push to close certain meetings of public bodies. May 18, 2010 Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee P.O. Box 94183 Baton […]
Overview With the primary on the way, BGR submitted questions to all mayoral candidates on topics in four areas: the city’s budget, city services, infrastructure and blight. Four candidates – Rob Couhig, John Georges, Mitch Landrieu and James Perry – responded. BGR is presenting the Q&A to the public in a web-only, four-part series, Questions […]
Overview In this report entitled In the Private Interest: A Review of the Lake Forest Plaza TIF Proposal, BGR analyzes a tax increment financing (TIF) proposal by the owners of the former mall site in eastern New Orleans to use public funds to clear up debts on the site and redevelop it.
Overview BGR examines two property taxes for public transit up for renewal by Jefferson Parish voters in the April 4, 2009, election.
Overview On February 3, 2009, BGR sent a letter to Councilman Arnold Fielkow, Chairman of the New Orleans City Council’s Special Projects and Economic Development Committee, on the use and operation of the City’s Economic Development Fund. The letter recommends that the City abandon the current practice of directing grants to a handful of individual […]
Overview BGR provides analysis of local propositions as well as amendments to the state constitution appearing on the ballot for November 4, 2008. A proposition in New Orleans would amend the city charter to make comprehensive changes to planning and land use decision making in the city. A proposition in Jefferson Parish would expand the permissible […]
Overview Street Smarts: Maintaining and Managing New Orleans’ Road Network provides an overview of street management systems in general and examines the challenges New Orleans faces in maintaining its streets. It concludes with recommendations to improve street maintenance and management in New Orleans.
Overview In On the Ballot: New Orleans, October 2008, BGR provides analysis and takes positions on two ballot propositions: one to issue bonds through the Sheriff’s Law Enforcement District for Orleans Parish criminal justice facilities and another to protect the newly created Office of Inspector General in New Orleans.
Overview Look Before You Leap: Tax Increment Financing in Jefferson Parish provides an overview of tax increment financing (TIF) and describes four TIF districts proposed in Jefferson Parish. It also reviews the perceived benefits of TIF, as well as the pitfalls and potential abuses of the mechanism. It concludes with recommendations to the Jefferson Parish […]
Overview Mending the Urban Fabric: Blight in New Orleans is a two-part series analyzing blighted property programs and recommending reforms. In Part I, BGR addressed the structure, goals and strategy of New Orleans’ blight remediation programs. Now, in Part II, BGR focuses on code enforcement and procedures for successful redevelopment.
Overview The City of New Orleans is working on a draft policy governing tax increment financing. BGR submitted comments on the February 2008 draft at the request of the City Council’s Special Development Projects and Economic Development Committee. The letter recommends that the City look to San Antonio’s TIF policy for guidance. In November, BGR […]
Overview Mending the Urban Fabric: Blight in New Orleans is a two-part series analyzing blighted property programs and recommending reforms. Here, in Part I, BGR addresses the structure, goals and strategy of New Orleans’ blight remediation programs. In Part II, BGR focuses on code enforcement and procedures for successful redevelopment.
Overview BGR has been conducting extensive research on blighted property issues and blight remediation programs in New Orleans and is preparing a study for future publication. Drawing on that research, it is also responding to current developments. On December 11, BGR sent a letter to the City’s Office of Recovery Management recommending changes to local […]
Overview This release calls on the City of New Orleans to conform to charter requirements in producing its capital budget, which is developed by the mayor and reviewed by the New Orleans City Planning Commission and City Council.
Overview The Bureau of Governmental Research analyzes four proposed amendments to the State constitution and one proposed amendment to the St. Tammany Parish home rule charter. The report covers amendments that will go before voters on October 20, 2007. Two of the proposed constitutional amendments deal with State supplemental pay for local public safety employees. The […]
Overview In the face of mounting developer requests for subsidies, this release calls for the City of New Orleans and the Industrial Development Board of New Orleans to stop approving subsidies until they have implemented promised policies and procedures.
Overview This release raises concerns about proposed budget approvals for the New Orleans Office of Recovery Management’s plans in advance of a public vetting of those plans. New Orleans recovery planning process following Hurricane Katrina requires transparency and public input.
Overview In Budgeting in a Time of Crisis: A Review of the City of New Orleans’ 2007 Budgets, BGR examines the City’s operating and capital budgets for 2007, the second fiscal year following Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Overview In Seeking Subsidies on Top of Subsidies, BGR raises concerns about requests for local property tax subsidies through the Industrial Development Board of New Orleans to housing developments that have already received subsidies through state and federal programs intended to support recovery following Hurricane Katrina. These include some redevelopments of public housing sites of […]
Overview BGR analyzes three tax propositions to go before voters in Jefferson Parish on March 31, 2007. The propositions would renew property taxes levied parishwide or in large portions of the parish that provide funding for the public schools, recreation and drainage.
Overview In Protecting New Orleans’ Tax Base: Which PILOTs Should Fly? BGR addresses New Orleans’ system for handling property tax subsidies through the payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) mechanism. This report comes at a time when requests for such subsidies to the Industrial Development Board of New Orleans are increasing.
Overview In September 2006, members of the New Orleans City Council introduced an ordinance to establish an Office of Inspector General. Read BGR’s letter to the City Council as well as the version of the ordinance introduced on October 19 and the final version approved by City Council on November 2.
Overview On September 30, Louisiana voters were asked to approve 13 constitutional amendments. This report focuses on those that are amendments relevant to Greater New Orleans in four arenas: coastal restoration and flood protection, expropriation, the homestead exemption, and unfunded state mandates. In addition, BGR provides an expanded discussion of the proposed amendment on expropriation, […]
Overview BGR and the Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana, Inc. (PAR) have issued a joint report calling for a full appraisal of financial options for local governments in fiscal crisis, including municipal bankruptcy.
Overview BGR comments on proposed legislation to create the Louisiana Housing and Land Trust. This report is part of a series of web-based reports BGR began publishing following the 2005 Hurricane Katrina disaster.
Overview BGR comments on a proposal to create a redevelopment authority for post-Katrina New Orleans. This report is part of a web-based series on the rebuilding of New Orleans that BGR began publishing after the Hurricane Katrina disaster of 2005. The creation of the authority has implications for the city’s ability to address blighted property.
Overview BGR comments on post-Katrina redevelopment strategy in this installment of a web-based series of reports that BGR began publishing following the 2005 Hurricane Katrina disaster.
Overview The New Orleans Saints, the Louisiana Stadium and Exposition District, and the State of Louisiana are in the midst of negotiations that will determine whether the Saints remain in New Orleans. Sports subsidies present communities with difficult political and financial decisions. In this report, BGR seeks to provide policymakers and the public with background […]
Overview On the Right Track? New Orleans Economic Development in Perspective provides an overview of economic development expenditures in New Orleans to give citizens and government with a better understanding of their investment. The report takes a comprehensive look at the actors in New Orleans economic development in 2004, including: the City of New Orleans […]
Overview BGR analyzes two of four state constitutional amendments that will appear on the November 2, 2004, ballot. The two amendments would modify the homestead exemption and the veterans’ preference to apply for civil service positions. In addition, BGR provides voters in New Orleans with information on a proposed $260 million bond issue and Jefferson […]
Overview BGR analyzes a property tax renewal for the Jefferson Parish Public School System, considering the taxpayers’ investment and its importance to the school system.
Overview In this report, BGR predicts tight financial times ahead for Jefferson Parish Government. What can the Parish Council and Parish President do about it? This report offers an array of options for keeping the parish coffers filled.
Overview Among the propositions on the ballot for October 4, 2003, are three constitutional amendments relating to coastal restoration, and another providing for the possible state takeover of failing public schools, many of which are in New Orleans. BGR analyzes these four amendments, along with two local propositions. The Jefferson Parish ballot proposition would increase […]
Overview BGR studies the use of tax increment financing (TIF) in general for economic development and in New Orleans in particular, and makes recommendations.
Overview On February 2, 2002, the voters of New Orleans will consider a proposition to authorize the extension of the property tax millage for the New Orleans Business and Industrial District. The district has since been renamed the New Orleans Regional Business Park.
Overview As a supplement to Public Contracting for Legal Services, this report provides information and analysis of contracting practices of local governments. Also available are appendixes summarizing 18 local government entities’ practices and the text of Louisiana laws. The Public Law Center (TPLC), the Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana (PAR), and the Bureau of Governmental […]
Overview The Public Law Center (TPLC), the Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana (PAR), and the Bureau of Governmental Research (BGR) prepared this study of contracting for outside legal services by state and local government entities at the request of the Kendall Vick Public Law Foundation. The objectives were to survey the laws and regulations […]
Overview This report examines the history and current state of the operating budget and compares revenues and expenditures, including salaries, for the City of Harahan, a municipality in Jefferson Parish. The report includes information on comparable Louisiana cities.
Overview This edition of BGR’s Outlook series discusses the financial challenges facing the Jefferson Parish Public School System and the current academic performance of its schools.
Overview This report presents BGR’s analysis of ballot propositions to allow the issuance of general obligation bonds of $150 million by the City of New Orleans and $27 million by the Orleans Parish Law Enforcement District. Although the Criminal Sheriff governs the district, the bond proposal would raise funds for the sheriff, the district attorney […]
Overview In this report, BGR reviews the four proposed changes in the Louisiana constitution that voters will decide on November 7, 2000. The amendments would: (1) authorize the state to establish a corporation to be the state’s principal economic development organization (Louisiana Inc.) and to exempt it from civil service; (2) change state individual income […]
Overview This issue of the Outlook series examines the capital budget process of the City of New Orleans and critiques the implementation of the 1995 voter-approved building program.
Overview This issue of Outlook updates the financial status of the Jefferson Parish Public Schools with a focus on the revised fiscal year 1999 and the adopted fiscal year 2000 operating budgets.
Overview BGR examines four dedicated property tax millages on the ballot for renewal in Jefferson Parish. Voters will decide the proposed renewals on March 27, 1999. All four of the propositions provide for the continuation of basic services such as public transit, recreation and fire protection at existing authorized millage levels.
Overview This edition of Outlook provides an overview of Jefferson Parish Government and the Parish’s fiscal outlook, including final general government revenues and expenditures between 1988 and 1997, and an examination of the 1999 Jefferson Parish adopted budget.
Overview This is the first report in BGR’s Outlook series on the Orleans Parish School Board. The purpose of this report is to provide an overview of the Board’s fiscal outlook with a focus on the FY 1999 (July 1, 1998 through June 30, 1999) operating budget.
Overview In this issue of Outlook, BGR focuses on one specific area of Jefferson Parish Government—the public works function, which manages streets, water, sewer, drainage and other infrastructure. The purpose of this report is to provide a brief overview of how this department is organized, where it receives its funding and how it spends its […]
Overview This report reviews the City of New Orleans’ property service charge proposal on the ballot for December 5, 1998. The primary intended uses of the new revenues include pay raises for most City employees and for all Orleans Parish public school employees.
Overview This report provides a short analysis of the potential creation of three separate neighborhood-based special tax districts in New Orleans and a recommendation on two proposed amendments to the Louisiana Constitution relative to the governance of higher education. The neighborhood districts will provide additional funding for enhanced security and in some cases, beautification and […]
Overview This report provides a synopsis and short analysis of all 18 proposed amendments to the Louisiana Constitution on the October 3, 1998, election ballot. The topics include assessment freezes for senior citizens and properties undergoing restoration, as well as parish severance tax allocations and remediation of blighted property: Establishes community college system Increases parish […]
Overview This issue of the BGR Outlook on Jefferson examines the Jefferson Parish School Board’s finances. The 16-page report analyzes the factors leading to recent operating budget deficits and discusses potential solutions.
Overview This report analyzes professional services contracting practices by five area school boards in Jefferson, Orleans, Plaquemines, St. Bernard and St. Tammany parishes.
Overview This report is the fourth in BGR’s program of governmental oversight and monitoring of Jefferson Parish governments. This report provides updated budgetary information on the Parish Council, District Attorney and Sheriff.
Overview This is the first in a new series of reports highlighting the finances of Jefferson Parish local government. It provides an overview of parish general-purpose government revenues and expenditures over the past ten years and comparison of current-year operating budget.
On Wednesday, April 17, BGR President and CEO Rebecca Mowbray joined a host of concerned citizens at the Louisiana State Capitol to testify against SB 482, a bill that would greatly limit public records laws in Louisiana. The full...
Today, BGR presented a Breakfast Briefing with Cynthia Lee Sheng, Jefferson Parish President, and Mark Drewes, Director of the Jefferson Parish Department of Public Works, who discussed upgrading aging infrastructure in Jefferson Parish. This event was free to the...
On April 4, 2024, BGR provided research-based guidance to New Orleans City Council leaders as they review economic development incentive programs. Our letter to the council president and vice president draws on our extensive body of work on property...
Property taxes are a basic means of financing local government, but the public faces a confusing array of tax rates, taxing bodies and dedicated purposes across the New Orleans region. To help explain these taxes, the Bureau of Governmental...
In a November 28 letter to the New Orleans City Council, BGR expressed concern that the council does not have a formal process to evaluate funding requests from the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans (S&WB). The lack...
Election day is almost here. And there is more on the ballot than candidates running for office. Voters in many municipalities are also being asked to consider ballot measures related to local governance. In the city of New Orleans,...
There’s a changing of the guard at the Department of Public Works, Sarah McLaughlin-Porteous, who took over a little more than a year ago, resigned Sept. 6. “It was really a personal decision. I had a goal that when...
Orleans Parish School Board facilities millage renewal: Yes In the grueling recovery from Hurricane Katrina, the $1.8 billion lump sum settlement with FEMA to rebuild New Orleans schools was a high point. Saddled before the storm with facilities so...
Today, BGR presented “Rebuilding Our Infrastructure, Making New Orleans Resilient,” a Breakfast Briefing to discuss progress on New Orleans’ citywide street improvement program. Joseph W. Threat, Sr., and Sarah McLaughlin Porteous, public works leaders for the City of New...
NEW ORLEANS — The Bureau of Governmental Research has published a report calling on the City of New Orleans and the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office to resolve a long-running disagreement over funding for the parish jail. The dispute flared last fall...
NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — As the New Orleans City Council prepares its 2024 budget, the Bureau of Governmental Research has released a report about a longstanding dispute over funding for the Orleans Parish Prison. According to the report, the...
The Bureau of Governmental Research (BGR) published a report today calling on the City of New Orleans and the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office to resolve a long-running disagreement over funding for the parish jail. The dispute flared anew last fall...
Click here to watch the video, and here to visit the BGR webpage for this report.
NEW ORLEANS — From the Bureau of Governmental Research: On Sept. 21, the Bureau of Governmental Research released three On the Ballot reports for the October 14 election. The reports are intended to help New Orleans voters make informed decisions...
Today, the Bureau of Governmental Research (BGR) releases three On the Ballot reports for the October 14 election. The reports are intended to help New Orleans voters make informed decisions on three separate propositions: a property tax renewal for...
Spanish Plaza, the public space at the foot of Canal Street that New Orleans officials have long worried was neglected and underused, would get a new event space for musicians and other improvements through a new, tax-funded plan working...
The Bureau of Governmental Research (BGR) won two awards from the Governmental Research Association (GRA) at its national conference July 24-26 in Worcester, Mass. BGR’s 2022 report calling for governance reforms for the Orleans Parish jail received the Most...
The New Orleans City Council on Thursday approved $32 million for a new affordable housing fund, nearly doubling the financing assistance available to developers planning large multifamily projects across the city. City officials say the additional subsidies are needed...
Becky Mowbray and Stephen Stuart join Tommy to talk about how the city is spending the money from the General Fund Reserve. Click here to listen to the interview.
The New Orleans City Council on Thursday (May 25) approved a city spending plan for more than $120 million — almost all of which comes from federal COVID pandemic relief funds. The money is going to a wide range...
The New Orleans City Council is set to vote Thursday (May 25) on a plan to spend tens of millions in city surplus dollars on city vehicles, affordable housing and assorted other projects as well as the last $54...
Inevitably, impossibly, New Orleans lives with water. “With,” though, is a flexible term that, for more than 100 years, has been substantially informed by an engineering marvel: the city’s drainage system. Administered primarily by the Sewage and Water Board...
Standing before a gymnasium full of angry residents at the Avondale Playground in October, Jefferson Parish Council member Byron Lee made a pledge. “If you need uniforms, call my office,” he said. “If you need playground equipment, call my...
NEW ORLEANS — From the Bureau of Governmental Research: In an April 28 letter to the Jefferson Parish Council, BGR recommends ways in which the council can improve planning and public reporting for one-time spending made possible by the receipt of...
In an April 28 letter to the Jefferson Parish Council, BGR recommends ways in which the council can improve planning and public reporting for one-time spending made possible by the receipt of federal pandemic relief funds through the American Rescue Plan...
NEW ORLEANS — New Orleans East is getting some much-needed funding for some big projects. Councilman Oliver Thomas announced on social media this weekend that extra cash from the American Rescue Plan Act will be heading to New Orleans...
NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – As residents complained about garbage left to rot on the streets for weeks, the company contracted to collect that trash in several neighborhoods was pleading with the city of New Orleans to fully pay the...
When the New Orleans City Council passed a massive, $262 million amendment to the 2023 budget in the waning hours before a Dec. 1 deadline, local activists were surprised. There’d been no formal notice that Mayor LaToya Cantrell and...
NEW ORLEANS — From the Bureau of Governmental Research: On Dec. 13, BGR released a new report that shows how the City of New Orleans has used the first half ($194 million) of its federal relief funds to weather...
A new report from the local think tank the Bureau of Governmental Research analyzed how New Orleans has managed the $388 million in federal COVID relief funds it received through the America Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA. The central...
The Bureau of Governmental Research (BGR) highlighted a new report on the City of New Orleans’ uses of its federal American Rescue Plan Act funds in a webinar on December 14 on Zoom. The federal government has provided state...
A new report from the Bureau of Governmental Research (BGR) takes a closer look at the impacts of the City of New Orleans’ federal pandemic relief funds on its finances and budget priorities. Managing the Windfall: Tracking the City of...
The Ernest N. Morial Convention Center’s management is making a renewed push for a riverfront hotel, arguing that a strong rebound in the hospitality sector this year helps underpin the project’s prospects for success. The center on Monday made...
After more than a year of negotiations, the Ernest N. Morial New Orleans Exhibition Hall Authority Board has a development agreement for River District Neighborhood Investors LLC to move forward on a $1 billion mixed-use development and entertainment district...
A headquarter hotel for the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, planned prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and shelved as a shutdown of the city began, will be revived for discussion at a Sept. 21 board meeting, according...
Awards The Bureau of Governmental Research has received two research awards from the Governmental Research Association. BGR received a Certificate of Merit for Distinguished Research on a Local Government Issue for its method of analyzing local tax propositions in its “On...
Today, the Bureau of Governmental Research (BGR) hosted a Breakfast Briefing in Jefferson Parish about “Preparing Jefferson for Future Storms: What Hurricane Ida Taught Us About Response, Recovery and Resiliency.” This event, which was held at Copeland Tower Living...
NEW ORLEANS — From the Bureau of Governmental Research: BGR received two research awards from the Governmental Research Association at a national conference held last month in Philadelphia. In addition, BGR recently welcomed Melanie Bronfin as a new member of its...
The Bureau of Governmental Research (BGR) recently received two research awards from the Governmental Research Association (GRA) at its national conference held last month in Philadelphia. In addition, BGR recently welcomed Ms. Melanie Bronfin as a new member of...
People were upset two years ago when the COVID-19 pandemic forced them to stay inside and mostly interact with others virtually. But since then, residents have acclimated to the convenience of having everything readily accessible online, including government meetings....
Jefferson Parish residents voted Saturday to approve a 7-mill property tax increase that will generate an additional $28 million for the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office. Sheriff Joe Lopinto had pitched the tax increase as a way to bring in...
Rebecca Mowbray and Paul Rioux of the Bureau of Government Research joined Newell to discuss why the JPSO tax proposition is something voters should support. Click here to listen: https://www.audacy.com/wwl/podcasts/newell-normand-20323/researchers-back-jpso-tax-proposition-1384034328 Click here for BGR’s report on the Jefferson Parish...
On the ballot for the April 30 election is a tax proposal from Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office. “We were very eager to look at the proposal from the JPSO because Jefferson is the most populous parish in our region,”...
NEW ORLEANS — From the Bureau of Governmental Research: BGR has released a new report titled “On the Ballot: Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office Tax, April 30, 2022.” The report is intended to help Jefferson Parish voters make an informed...
When Jefferson Parish voters head to the ballot box on Saturday, April 30, they’ll decide on a potential millage increase put forward by Sheriff Joseph Lopinto to fund the hiring of nearly 250 positions and pay raises for sheriff’s...
Jefferson Parish Sheriff Joe Lopinto’s proposed 7-mill property tax to fund employee raises has picked up the backing of the Bureau of Governmental Research, which agreed with Lopinto’s assertion that increasing salaries is needed to help the agency keep...
Today, the Bureau of Governmental Research (BGR) releases a new report, On the Ballot: Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office Tax, April 30, 2022. The report is intended to help Jefferson Parish voters make an informed decision on whether to approve...
Sunshine Week (@SunshineWeek and #SunshineWeek) highlights our need to rebuild trust in public institutions. To accomplish this, we must promote access to public records, encourage lawmakers to be more transparent, and hold government accountable. At the heart of democracy...
One of the silver linings of the pandemic has been its effect on public meetings and our legal system. Because of limitations on persons gathering in close proximity, legislative and regulatory bodies ranging from congressional committees to town councils...
During the pandemic, government, like everyone else, embraced the use of video conferencing platforms. Most public bodies are returning to business as usual these days, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t learned from the temporary disruption. The Bureau of...
NEW ORLEANS — From the Bureau of Governmental Research: BGR released a report today calling on more government entities in Louisiana to livestream and archive video recordings of their meetings online, so citizens can continue to enjoy the benefits...
The Bureau of Governmental Research (BGR) released a report today calling on more government entities in Louisiana to livestream and archive video recordings of their meetings online, so citizens can continue to enjoy the benefits of remote access as pandemic...
A preliminary agreement between the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center and the master developer selected to transform 39 acres upriver from the facility into a mixed-use neighborhood could be finalized in the next few months. Michael Sawaya, president of...
CINCINNATI — It would be difficult to prove the Cincinnati Bengals’ Super Bowl run had a positive impact on the local economy. But Chris Rose has receipts to prove its impact at Sinners & Saints Tavern on Riverside Drive....
Today, Governor John Bel Edwards joined the Bureau of Governmental Research (BGR) for a Virtual Breakfast Briefing to discuss his key priorities for 2022 and the potential impacts of new federal funding for Louisiana. Click here or on the...
After years of doing taxes the same way, Louisiana voters beginning Saturday are being asked to decide if the state should head in a different direction. Forty-three parishes, like Orleans, are choosing local leadership or deciding propositions, like East...
The Ernest N. Morial Convention Center’s plans for a riverfront hotel crumbled in October when its financial backers pulled out, citing worries about the long-term health of the city’s tourism industry amid the pandemic. Less than a year later,...
The City of New Orleans has received its first portion of federal pandemic relief funds through the American Rescue Plan. This historic federal investment will influence the City’s budget for the next few years. BGR recently discussed the need...
NEW ORLEANS – The City of New Orleans has received its first portion of federal pandemic relief funds through the American Rescue Plan. This historic federal investment will influence the City’s budget for the next few years. BGR recently...
NEW ORLEANS – The Bureau of Governmental Research has released guidance for government entities planning how to spend federal pandemic relief funds. The nonprofit watchdog said governments have “substantial flexibility” in spending the federal dollars, which creates a “rare...
The Bureau of Governmental Research today releases Handle with Care: Public Planning and Accountability Must Guide Spending of Federal Relief Funds. This BGR NOW offers guidance to government entities on harnessing the opportunities presented by unprecedented federal funding to...
NEW ORLEANS – On March 23, the Bureau of Governmental Research kicked off its 2021 Breakfast Briefing Series with “The Vision for St. Tammany Parish,” a conversation among three parish leaders about balancing economic development and quality of life....
Yesterday, the Bureau of Governmental Research kicked off its 2021 Breakfast Briefing Series with “The Vision for St. Tammany Parish,” a conversation among three parish leaders about balancing economic development and quality of life. Speaking via Zoom webinar were...
On March 20, voters in Louisiana’s Second Congressional District will choose a successor to former U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond, who now works as a top aide to President Joe Biden. Voters in state House District 82, which encompasses Old...
The Bureau of Governmental Research (BGR) has a new report out about water and sewer tax propositions in Jefferson Parish, to be voted on in the March 20th election. Stephen Stuart is the Research Director at BGR, Susie Dudis...
JEFFERSON PARISH (WVUE) –The Bureau of Governmental Research Tuesday released a report highlighting two Jefferson Parish tax proposals related to the parish’s water and sewer systems. The two propositions will appear on the March 20 ballot. The propositions will...
NEW ORLEANS – The Bureau of Governmental Research has released a new report expressing support for two Jefferson Parish tax propositions that will appear on a March 20 ballot. BGR said the report is intended to help voters in...
The independent nonprofit group Bureau of Governmental Research is backing two Jefferson Parish tax proposals, one for its water system and one for its sewage system, according to a report released Tuesday. The proposals are the parish’s plan to...
Today, the Bureau of Governmental Research (BGR) releases On the Ballot: Jefferson Parish Water and Sewer Taxes, March 20, 2021. The report is intended to help voters in Jefferson Parish make informed decisions on two property tax propositions to...
The board that recently ousted New Orleans Inspector General Derry Harper wants to open his old job to a broad slate of candidates and provide stronger whistleblower protections for the office’s employees. But the nonpartisan Bureau of Governmental Research...
The New Orleans City Council will soon consider easing some of the restrictions for applicants interested in becoming the city’s next inspector general. The Ethics Review Board, which oversees the independent IG’s office, seeks the changes to open their...
Today, the Bureau of Governmental Research releases a new report, entitled Revitalizing New Orleans’ Office of Inspector General Depends on Quality of New Leader, Improved Oversight. The report analyzes key components of the selection process and future oversight of...
Today, the Bureau of Governmental Research (BGR) hosted a virtual Breakfast Briefing featuring Jefferson Parish President Cynthia Lee Sheng. She discussed “Leading Jefferson Parish Today and Tomorrow: Reflections on 2020, Managing the Pandemic, and Future Priorities.” Following her presentation,...
Today, BGR releases this BGR NOW supporting three policy changes up for consideration by the Orleans Parish School Board that would strengthen NOLA Public Schools’ financial accountability measures and support the district’s financial sustainability. The changes address financial oversight...
We find ourselves in the uncomfortable, but necessarily so, position of having to start this week’s Commentary with an apology. In late November, Gambit endorsed Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s millage proposals, most notably her controversial library millage plan. This was...
The voters in Orleans Parish spoke quite clearly Saturday when they rejected three millage proposals that Mayor LaToya Cantrell strongly pushed. I suspect the mayor isn’t hearing what they’re saying, at least not yet. There were plenty of complaints...
In Orleans Parish, multiple property tax measures were on the Dec. 5 ballot. New Orleans overwhelmingly rejected Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s near-term fiscal strategy Saturday when they voted down three property tax dedication changes as well as a French Quarter...
New Orleans voters roundly defeated all three of Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s tax proposals just days after she had warned that their failure could lead to the city implementing layoffs instead of the proposed furloughs that already figure to dramatically...
New Orleans voters on Saturday rejected a package of ballot propositions put forward by Mayor LaToya Cantrell that would have changed how the city spent roughly $23 million a year in property taxes. The plan would have cut roughly...
NEW ORLEANS — City leaders in New Orleans are calling on residents to approve three propositions on Saturday, which all deal with taxes set to expire at the end of next year. The first deals with funding infrastructure and...
ORLEANS PARISH, LA. — Orleans Parish voters will have to decide on three millage propositions at the polls. These propositions focus on infrastructure, housing and economic development, and early childhood education. New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell says voters need...
NEW ORLEANS — Facing significant opposition to her proposed cut to public libraries and to separate tax increases for infrastructure and economic development, Mayor LaToya Cantrell said Friday that if three propositions on Saturday’s ballot fail, she may have...
There are three parish-wide millage propositions on the ballot for Orleans Parish residents this weekend. One has to do with maintenance and infrastructure, another has to do with library funding and early childhood education. A third has to do...
New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell threatened to lay off city employees unless voters extend three property taxes Saturday. If the millages are not renewed, she said during a virtual town hall meeting Thursday evening, City Hall would “immediately have...
In Orleans Parish, multiple property tax measures are on the Dec. 5 ballot. Proposition 1 funds infrastructure, including roadwork. A yes vote for Proposition 1 would replace two existing property taxes with a new special tax. The existing millage...
NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – Mayor LaToya Cantrell says there is a lot riding on three millages this Saturday. Proposition One is a renewal of a infrastructure and maintenance fund tax. Proposition Two is a restructured library tax which would...
Dr. Gabriel Morley, the director of the New Orleans Public Library, said at a Wednesday morning press conference that he had seen no written plan for how the library would adjust to a 40 percent budget cut being proposed...
NEW ORLEANS— In addition to deciding the next district attorney, voters in Orleans Parish will decide issues that affect their wallets. There are three propositions the city is asking voters to renew. In an exclusive interview with WGNO News,...
The future of New Orleans’ publicly funded childcare program is now tied to a controversial tax proposal that slashes the library’s budget by 40 percent. Proposition 2 reduces the existing property tax dedicated to the city’s public library system,...
Newell talks to Research Director Stephen Stuart about what voters will see on their ballots in the Dec 5 election. The discussion focuses on the New Orleans property tax propositions on the ballot.
In recent weeks, New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell has ramped up her campaign to convince voters to approve a plan to reallocate millions of dollars in property taxes, which will appear as three separate ballot propositions on the Dec....
New Orleans voters will be asked to reconfigure five soon-to-expire taxes into four new ones on the Dec. 5 ballot, leaving the overall tax rate the same but altering how much funding various city services and functions receive. The...
Mayor LaToya Cantrell is asking New Orleans voters to approve three interrelated millages on Dec. 5 that wouldn’t increase residents’ total tax bills, but would reallocate the proceeds for 20 years. The first would increase a combined streets and...
The diverse group of parents, librarians and concerned citizens that make up the Save Our Libraries coalition got a boost this week when the Bureau of Governmental Research added their voice to those opposing Proposition 2 which is on...
NEW ORLEANS — Early voting begins Friday across Louisiana for the Dec. 5 election, which includes the runoff for Orleans Parish District Attorney, as well as several judicial runoffs and important tax issues across the metro New Orleans area....
NEW ORLEANS – In a new report, the Bureau of Governmental Research – a private, nonprofit government watchdog – analyzes three separate propositions to replace several property taxes that will expire at the end of 2021. BGR said the...
In a report released Monday, the Bureau of Governmental Research, a local nonpartisan think tank, came out against a package of proposed property tax changes backed by New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell. Cantrell’s tax plan is being put to...
Today the Bureau of Governmental Research (BGR) releases On the Ballot: New Orleans Property Tax Propositions, December 5, 2020. The report is intended to help New Orleans voters make an informed decision on three separate propositions to replace several City...
Today, the Bureau of Governmental Research (BGR) hosted a virtual Breakfast Briefing featuring New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell. She discussed “Looking Ahead to 2021: New Orleans’ Budget, Infrastructure and Policy Priorities” and then answered questions from the audience. BGR...
Even as it’s grown in popularity, I’ve never felt compelled to participate in early voting. I enjoy the ritual of walking to my local polling place, seeing neighbors and greeting the commissioners who show up year after year to...
NEW ORLEANS – In a new report, the Bureau of Governmental Research – a nonprofit watchdog group – recommends voters renew a 0.5-mill property tax dedicated to Jefferson Parish’s Office of Inspector General and the Ethics and Compliance Commission. BGR...
The Jefferson Parish Inspector General’s property tax renewal, which is on the ballot Nov. 3, got the thumbs up from an independent nonprofit Tuesday, when the Bureau of Governmental Research announced its endorsement. The .5-mill, 10-year property tax that...
Today, the Bureau of Governmental Research (BGR) releases On the Ballot: Jefferson Parish Inspector General Tax Renewal, November 3, 2020. The report is intended to help voters in the unincorporated areas of Jefferson Parish make an informed decision on...
Despite the Morial Convention Center’s pandemic-related money challenges, tourism chief Stephen Perry said during a Biz New Orleans podcast interview this week that it’s more important than ever to continue with the center’s planned improvements and developments. “We have...
The financial backer of the 1,200-room hotel at the upriver end of the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center has pulled out of the project, putting the future of the development in doubt as the coronavirus continues to wreak havoc...
The Ernest N. Morial New Orleans Convention Center has spent $49 million of its large cash reserves to cover deep budget shortfalls caused by the coronavirus pandemic, which has ground the convention industry to a near-complete halt and starved...
At the request of Mayor LaToya Cantrell, the New Orleans City Council on Thursday gave final approval to a long-anticipated 6.75 percent tax on short-term rental bookings. Thursday’s ordinance codifying the new tax into city law comes more than...
The New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center is facing unprecedented challenges. In April, a watchdog report critical of its hotel expansion plans cautioned against it in the near term. At its May board of commissioners meeting, the financial...
Today, BGR released the inaugural edition of PolicyWatch, a periodic newsletter that draws on BGR’s body of independent, nonpartisan research to address current public policy issues. This edition focuses on the City of New Orleans’ finances as it faces a...
The New Orleans City Council will consider a resolution to formally oppose the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center’s publicly subsidized hotel development at a Thursday meeting. The resolution, which appears in the agenda for the council’s meeting on Thursday,...
The governing board of the Ernest N. Morial New Orleans Convention Center is pressing pause on behind-the-scenes negotiations with a private development team over a publicly subsidized, $702 million hotel development. The announcement followed weeks of criticism from public officials and...
The Ernest N. Morial Convention Center’s oversight board on Wednesday approved a donation of $1 million to support programs for “needy hospitality workers due to COVID-19,” which will be split equally between The United Way of Southeast Louisiana and...
The Communications Workers of America, the largest communications and media labor union in the country, is threatening to pull its August 2021 convention if the center doesn’t negotiate with local groups demanding the center provide $100 million in relief...
Three developers have been selected as finalists for a mixed-use entertainment district on 39 acres adjacent to a new headquarters hotel planned for the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. The selected teams are The Domain Companies; River District Neighborhood...
The Ernest N. Morial Convention Center will delay plans to develop a new, 20-acre “entertainment district” on some of its upriver land, according to the new chairman of its oversight board, as the finances of the massive facility continue...
Over the past week, officials with the Ernest N. Morial New Orleans Convention Center have sent a clear message: They will push forward a trio of interconnected developments worth over $1 billion, despite the known and unknown economic impacts...
A new 1,200-room hotel at the Morial Convention Center downtown is a risky proposal now that the coronavirus has disrupted New Orleans’ tourism industry and its major business meeting schedule. That’s the conclusion of a new report from the...
The Bureau of Governmental Research says a proposed headquarters hotel at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center needs reconsideration now that tourism and conventions have been affected by the coronavirus pandemic. A report released Thursday by the public policy organization also...
The Bureau of Governmental Research, a public policy watchdog, has called on leaders of the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center to rethink plans to build a large hotel, saying it is an especially bad use of taxpayers’ money at...
Today, the Bureau of Governmental Research releases a report calling on the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center to pause its 1,200-room convention headquarters hotel project to assess the coronavirus pandemic’s impacts on tourism and conventions, and to...
A coalition of 21 local unions, advocacy organizations and other groups are calling on the Ernest N. Morial New Orleans Convention Center to release $100 million out of its unrestricted cash reserves to support hospitality industry workers who are...
The coronavirus outbreak and the efforts to slow its spread are set to levy a massive toll on the New Orleans economy, with the hospitality sector already seeing a sharp downturn in business and officials warning about likely cuts...
The Ernest N. Morial Convention Center has presented a proposal to Mayor LaToya Cantrell to settle a yearlong dispute with the Regional Transit Authority over millions in tax dollars split between the two agencies and the New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corporation....
BGR President and CEO Amy Glovinsky and Vice President & Research Director Stephen Stuart talked about the 2020 Excellence in Government Awards program and a variety of issues related to local government in a live interview with Oliver Thomas...
Deputy clerks at Orleans Parish Criminal District Court can breathe a sigh of relief — at least for now. Clerk of Court Arthur Morrell said Monday that he has shelved his plan to furlough nearly all of his office’s...
Large portions of Convention Center Boulevard are closed for the entire month of December. It’s just the latest in a series of intermittent closures on the Central Business District thoroughfare as the street is permanently converted from four lanes...
Read Part 1: Fulfilling the mission. The OIG faced a series of challenges beginning in 2015. While the Office remained highly productive and continued to release credible and well-respected reports, the cumulative effect of these challenges diverted attention from...
The governing body of the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center set its 2020 budget at its Wednesday meeting. The Convention Center board was also expected to approve a contract with Populous, a Missouri-based architecture firm, to be...
The City Council has made a request to cut tax rates for property owners, and an agreement is under consideration. The plan is to move some individual millages around to prioritize infrastructure and public safety dollars over areas of...
Citizens in New Orleans who plan to vote in Saturday’s election can inform their decisions with BGR’s report, On the Ballot: New Orleans Bond and Tax Propositions, November 16, 2019. The report examines three separate propositions that would authorize...
On Friday, The New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corporation, a public municipal entity, provided some of the first details into what it will look like once the majority of its staff, mission and funding are absorbed by the private nonprofit...
Since taking office in May 2018, New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell has searched far and wide for more money to fund the city’s pressing infrastructure needs, winning a big victory this spring when state officials and the tourism industry...
As the New Orleans City Council reviews the proposed 2020 budget for the City of New Orleans, BGR presents here a collection of resources to help citizens understand the proposal in the context of recent City budget trends and...
November 16th, New Orleans residents will vote on three different propositions, all that would allow the city to use those dollars to improve local infrastructure. “This touches basic civics services, and if we want a better quality of life...
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....
In a report released Tuesday, the non-partisan Bureau for Governmental Research (BGR) has endorsed three ballot propositions that would collectively generate millions of dollars in both annual and one-time funding, most of which would be spent on infrastructure projects....
Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s top public works aides offered a roadmap Tuesday for the hundreds of millions of dollars they plan to spend on streets, drainage, parks and other infrastructure in coming years, even as they cautioned that much of...
In 2-1/2 weeks New Orleans voters will be asked to consider three new tax measures that city officials say, would generate more than $520 million a year for capital improvements and infrastructure needs. The Bureau of Governmental Research came...
The Bureau of Governmental Research is backing three ballot initiatives aimed at increasing city funding for infrastructure that Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s administration is putting before the voters on Nov. 16. Cantrell is asking voters to impose a new sales...
Today BGR releases On the Ballot: New Orleans Bond and Tax Propositions, November 16, 2019. The report analyzes three separate propositions that would authorize the City of New Orleans (City) to: Issue up to $500 million in bonds for...
One of the reasons you love Think504 is that we keep you informed about important political and civic decisions you have to make. So when you go into the voting booth (Early voting Nov 2-9 Election Day Nov 16) to elect...
The New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center reached a deal last week with a consortium of private developers to build a new 1,200-room hotel on the center’s upriver side, with public subsidies amounting to an estimated $114 million,...
At a public meeting Monday night, the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center’s governing body touted its plans for a $557 million hotel as a project that would bring jobs and tourism dollars to the city. But a few residents...
Citizens in Orleans and Jefferson parishes who plan to vote in tomorrow’s election can inform their decisions with three BGR reports: On the Ballot: Housing Tax Exemptions in New Orleans, October 12, 2019 examines Constitutional Amendment No. 4, which...
Today, BGR releases A Look Back to Plan Ahead: Analyzing Past New Orleans Budgets to Guide Funding Priorities. The report reviews the City’s General Fund budgets from 2010 to 2019, focusing on growth in revenues and changes in expenditures. As...
The race to replace Ricky Templet in the Jefferson Parish Council’s District 1 seat is between two candidates who would be new to parish government, though only one could be considered a political outsider. Retired postal worker Sheldon Vincent...
Today BGR releases Questions for a New Parish Council, the second in a two-part report series providing the views of candidates for Jefferson Parish government on important public policy issues. Yesterday, BGR released the responses of the candidates for...
Today BGR releases Questions for a New Parish President, the first in a two-part series of reports providing the views of candidates for Jefferson Parish government on important public policy issues. Tomorrow, BGR will release the responses of the...
The hospitality industry in New Orleans brings in $8.7 billion per year, according to a report commissioned by the city in 2018. But while the industry thrives, many of the city’s cooks, servers and bartenders must walk a financial tightrope trying...
The controversial 1,200-room hotel proposed for the upriver end of the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center passed a major milestone on Friday, when a hard-fought legislative bill laying out the terms of the project was signed by Gov. John Bel...
New Orleans will receive tens of millions of dollars to replace antiquated sewage pipes, fix faulty drainage pumps and mend pothole-filled roads, mostly by levying higher taxes on visitors, after the state Senate on Sunday gave final approval to...
For generations, the mayor of New Orleans was supposed to be a native, a smooth political operator and, it almost goes without saying, a man. In her history-making 2017 campaign, Mayor LaToya Cantrell bet that New Orleans was ready...
The city of New Orleans’ crumbling infrastructure will receive an infusion of tens of millions of dollars under a deal announced Monday by Gov. John Bel Edwards and Mayor LaToya Cantrell after weeks of hard-fought negotiations between their aides...
JEFFERSON PARISH, La. —Residents of Jefferson Parish voted to adopt a pay raise for teachers in the parish. A pay raise for all teachers at Jefferson Parish schools passed with nearly 80% of the vote. The proposition will raise...
With a new School Board, new superintendent and new goal to improve academic performance from a C grade to an A in five years, Jefferson Parish voters agreed Saturday (May 4) to raise property taxes for public education by $28.8 million. Approval with...
Jefferson Parish voters on Saturday resoundingly approved a new 7.9-mill, 10-year property tax to fund raises for teachers and other employees. The proposal from the Jefferson Parish School Board garnered 72 percent approval. In unrelated elections, the parish’s voters...
With broad backing of the parish’s leadership, including the business community and teachers unions at one time at odds, a new pay plan for Jefferson Parish teachers and school employees is a good proposal worthy of the support of...
Voters in much of the New Orleans area will head to the polls Saturday to consider mainly requests involving taxes, as a parks and recreation tax in Orleans Parish, a teacher pay tax in Jefferson Parish and a school...
The closing of a deal to secure millions of dollars in immediate and continuing money for the city’s drainage infrastructure and the Sewerage & Water Board appears imminent for Mayor LaToya Cantrell. The negotiations in some respects could put more money in the hands of the...
Some very critical tax measures go before the voters on Saturday. Teacher pay raises and commitments to public greenspace and facilities in both Jefferson and Orleans. Even on the second Saturday of Jazz Fest, these millages are worthy of...
The Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, a major player in the New Orleans tourism industry, is sitting on some $200 million in tax money — funds generated for a center expansion that was scrapped after Hurricane Katrina. Some critics, including...
America faces a crisis at home more urgent than any before — other than Pearl Harbor and 9/11. That crisis is our crumbling and badly managed infrastructure. Some may call me an alarmist, but I don’t expect many New Orleanians...
New Orleans developer and hotelier Joe Jaeger announced Saturday that he is withdrawing from the team seeking to build a heavily subsidized and thus controversial hotel at the upriver end of the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. Earlier in...
Lyndsey Jackson teaches deaf children ages 3 to 5 how to communicate, to treat one another with respect and to learn, so that they’ll be ready for kindergarten. She spends part of the day on the classroom floor at...
In a hardball move against the hospitality industry, New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell took her fight for tourism tax dollars to the Louisiana Legislature Monday, with members of her administration testifying in favor of a series of bills to...
Maybe it’s poor timing, but the leadership of Jefferson Parish has an important tax proposal for teacher pay on the ballot just as the Legislature is contemplating a $1,000 raise for teachers from the state. The teacher pay raise...
VOTERS IN NEW ORLEANS AND JEFFERSON PARISH WILL GO TO THE POLLS ON MAY 4 — during Jazz Fest — to consider several important property tax millages. In New Orleans, the sole item on the ballot is the proposed renewal...
JEFFERSON PARISH, La. —Voters in Jefferson Parish will soon decide if they want to pay more in property taxes to fund teacher pay raises. The property millage is on the May 4 ballot. The proposition would raise teachers’ pay...
NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – In less than a month, Jefferson Parish voters will be asked to approve a property tax increase for teacher and support worker pay raises, though some voters are wondering why the tax is drawing support...
A nonpartisan research group is urging New Orleans and Jefferson Parish voters to support two tax measures that will be on the May 4 ballot. The private Bureau of Governmental Research announced Tuesday that it has endorsed a measure...
NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – In a new report released Tuesday morning, the Bureau of Governmental Research weighs in on a proposed tax to give Jefferson Parish teachers pay raises. The BGR report comes down in favor of the proposal...
The Jefferson Parish public school system’s $28.8 million tax increase was endorsed Tuesday (April 9) by the independent Bureau of Governmental Research, which called it a “well-developed” proposal to make teacher pay competitive with other local school systems. The property tax...
Jefferson Parish’s proposed 7.9-mill public schools tax landed a significant endorsement Tuesday, when the Bureau of Governmental Research backed the measure. The tax, which will appear on the May 4 ballot, would generate nearly $29 million a year in...
Today, BGR releases On the Ballot: Jefferson Parish School Tax Proposal, May 4, 2019. The report analyzes a May 4 tax proposition in Jefferson Parish for a new 7.9-mill tax to fund pay raises for teachers and other school employees....
Hear WWL Radio’s Tommy Tucker talk with Amy Glovinsky, President/CEO BGR (Bureau of Governmental Research), about the City’s efforts to get a greater share of the tax revenue from the tourism industry. Click here to read BGR’s report on...
The contentious debate over how to use New Orleans tourism tax dollars that has rumbled along largely behind closed doors spilled out in public Wednesday at The New Orleans Advocate’s tourism summit. A high-level panel that included Mayor LaToya...
An expert panel on tourism brought together a host of important industries and ideas Tuesday morning in downtown New Orleans. The forum, hosted at The New Orleans Advocate, delved into several subjects integral to the city’s tourism future and...
It’s 2019, but looking at some of the city’s old and antiquated infrastructure, it doesn’t feel like it. We have a pumping system that includes parts that are over a hundred years old, and a water and sewer system...
Build it and they will come. That’s the rosy forecast by officials from the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, who are in the beginning stages of a $1.1 billion spending plan that they say will bring hordes of...
Less than a month away from the start of the 2019 legislative session, Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s legislative agenda is being shaped by her push to divert millions of tax dollars from state-sponsored tourism and sports agencies to helping meet New...
Two groups — one created by the mayor and the governor, the other consisting of tourism and business leaders working behind the scenes — are zeroing in on sources of money that could help address the New Orleans Sewerage & Water...
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Orleans Parish tax assessor says he’s told convention center officials that a $558 million hotel they’re proposing probably would not be exempt from property taxes — something some center board members say is essential....
Community activism is alive and well in New Orleans at the grassroot level. One group, The New Orleans Peoples’ Assembly (NOPA), is in the vanguard of addressing social injustice and human rights violations by people with both political and...
With the Louisiana Legislature convening in exactly one month, the first proposals focused on raising more money for New Orleans road and Sewerage & Water Board repairs have begun to take shape. The chances for major success, though, appear slim at this point,...
Erroll Williams, the Orleans Parish tax assessor, is complicating plans for a hotel that officials of the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center want to build with tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies. Williams told Convention Center officials...
A respected investment banker has a plan that he says could save the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center hundreds of millions of dollars in its controversial deal to build a 1,200-room hotel. So far, the response from the center’s...
This year agencies in New Orleans charged with overseeing the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, running the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center and promoting tourism in the city will do so with the help of more than $160 million in tax dollars....
New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell has signaled she wants $75 million for city infrastructure repairs straight from the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center’s reserve account, tapping money from hotel tax revenues that Gov. John Bel Edwards, key state lawmakers and tourism industry leaders have said should be...
What was originally meant to be a temporary move to ease the construction of the Superdome may still be costing the city an estimated $12 million dollars in 2019, according to a recent report. A recent report from the...
NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – Mayor LaToya Cantrell wants millions of dollars from the Convention Center and said the city is not getting its fair share of hotel tax money, when compared with other major cities. “I have recommended a...
The old idiom that nothing is certain but death and taxes remains true, with the possible addition of Roger Goodell’s loathing of the Saints to round out the list. The certainty surrounding taxes, however, is in the paying of...
Amy Glovinsky and Paul Rioux of the Bureau of Governmental Research joined Newell to talk about the tourism dollar to the state budget.
Mayor LaToya Cantrell on Thursday gave the clearest outline yet of her vision for plugging budget holes at the cash-strapped Sewerage & Water Board, a plan that banks heavily on the city’s tourism and sports industries providing an upfront...
New Orleans City Councilwoman Kristin Gisleson Palmer is calling for an end to a longtime arrangement that diverts about half of the Regional Transit Authority’s hotel tax revenues to the tourism industry. A one-percent sales tax — approved in...
NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) -The City of New Orleans wants to spread the wealth from hotel tax funding. The Bureau of Governmental Research will share its findings Tuesday on how the tax money could be used to improve city services....
Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s effort to get more of New Orleans’ hotel-motel taxes into the city’s general fund got a boost when the Bureau of Governmental Research (BGR), a nonpartisan good government group, made the case that the city should increase hotel-motel...
The Bureau of Governmental Research has waded into the big-dollar tax dispute between Mayor LaToya Cantrell and the tourism industry with a recommendation that would deliver more dollars to the city of New Orleans – as Cantrell is seeking....
NEW ORLEANS The New Orleans government’s share of taxes from hotel rooms in the tourism-dependent city should increase by more than $12 million a year, an independent research group said in a report released Wednesday. Reviving a debate involving city...
Restoring a 1 percent sales tax on New Orleans hotels would be a step too much for the city’s tourism industry to bear, leading industry representatives said Wednesday (Jan. 30), responding to a new watchdog report that called for the extra...
A new report by a nonprofit group says the city of New Orleans should get to keep more tax dollars then it’s currently getting. That report came from the Bureau of Governmental Research. View video here.
NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – A leading local research group published a comprehensive report on New Orleans hotel-motel taxes, which shows the city lagging far behind when it comes to using hotel tax revenues to help fund city services. Since...
A new report from the Bureau of Governmental Research released on Wednesday found a lack of accountability and transparency when it comes to New Orleans hotel tax revenue, and recommended that the city get at least $12 million more per year,...
A one-percent tax on New Orleans hotel sales should return to city coffers, as it was decades ago before that local tax was halted to let the state collect its own tax revenue to build the Superdome, says a new report...
New Orleans Councilwoman Kristin Gisleson Palmer warned this week that she would not support any new fee levied on residents and businesses to raise money for the city’s drainage system unless it’s paid fairly by everyone in the city and nixes exemptions...
The Louisiana Stadium and Exposition District, the state entity with oversight of Mercedes-Benz Superdome and Smoothie King Center, raked in an additional $2.6 million in hotel taxes in 2017, pushing its revenue from tourist-related taxes to a record high,...
Amid new pressure from unions and an ongoing debate over whether the city’s hospitality and tourism industry is doing enough to support its mostly low-wage workers, a local nonprofit research group has released a report estimating that the industry’s...
Facing political pressure to share some of their hotel tax revenue with city agencies, New Orleans tourism leaders on Thursday proposed an alternative: a new hotel tax that would generate $6.7 million a year for municipal infrastructure projects. But...
New Orleans hospitality industry and business representatives are pitching a plan to raise $81 million in one-time money to plan and undertake fixes to drainage and other city infrastructure. Mayor LaToya Cantrell panned the proposal shortly after it was made public...
New Orleans City Council members had some surprising answers at a panel discussion hosted by the Bureau of Governmental Research last week when they were asked what they have been most surprised by in city government. “People lie,” first-year...
We hosted our first BGR Social at The Shop @ the CAC, where young professionals and New Orleans City Council members Williams, Giarrusso, Palmer, Nguyen, and Banks gathered for a public policy conversation. The event was sponsored by Corporate...
As negotiations continue behind the scenes over the terms of the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center’s proposed 1,200-room high-rise Omni Hotel, the city’s property tax assessor says he is skeptical that the $557.5 million project would qualify for the...
Governor John Bel Edwards presented at a BGR Breakfast Briefing on State of Louisiana priorities of local importance. BGR expresses its appreciation to Governor Edwards and to our attendees for their presence and participation in the Q&A that followed...
A plan by New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell to ask state lawmakers to shift some hotel taxes from tourism to the ailing infrastructure of the Sewerage & Water Board was dealt a major, and likely fatal, blow on Tuesday...
The would-be developers of the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center’s proposed $557.5 million, 1,200-room Omni Hotel have released the first design draft of the project’s exterior. Negotiations are ongoing and expected to wrap up by early 2019 between the New Orleans...
The developer of a proposed 1,200-room Ernest N. Morial Convention Center hotel has released a rendering of the structure, a $558 million addition to the facility along the Mississippi River in New Orleans. Dallas-based Matthews Southwest Hospitality is seeking...
There will be several proposed changes to the state constitution on the ballot next Tuesday. One of them, Amendment 6, is meant to ease the blow of a sudden increase in property taxes. That’s something experienced by many people...
Jefferson Parish voters will take up three parishwide tax renewals when they go to the polls Nov. 6, while voters in Grand Isle and parts of the west bank also will vote on taxes for their local fire departments....
Today the Bureau of Governmental Research (BGR) releases reports to inform voters on proposed Constitutional Amendment No. 6 and three proposed Jefferson Parish property tax renewals. Tax Phase-In Constitutional Amendment On November 6, 2018, voters statewide will decide whether...
Let New Orleans drown in water and red ink or stop giving special interests money to finance their real-life Monopoly game? It should be a no-brainer for Louisiana lawmakers. Earlier this month, Mayor LaToya Cantrell executed a campaign promise...
New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell built her political career by being a disruptor, and she won election with 60 percent of the vote, so clearly that’s a quality her constituents wanted in their new leader. Her disruptive side was...
New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell is poised to meet with hotel and tourism industry leaders this week to broach potential tweaks to the existing occupancy tax dedication structure amid a funding shortfall for city drainage infrastructure improvements. Tens of millions of dollars flow to a handful of tourism,...
Louisiana state Senate President John Alario on Friday threw cold water on Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s tentative plan to try to shift tax revenue away from local tourism agencies to help pay for improving New Orleans’ antiquated drainage, water and sewerage systems....
Mayor LaToya Cantrell outlined tentative plans Thursday to shift some tax revenue away from various local tourism, sports and marketing agencies to improve New Orleans’ crippled drainage and water systems. Cantrell said she would ask state lawmakers, presumably during...
When Mayor LaToya Cantrell addressed the Bureau of Governmental Research on Tuesday, she was quick to talk about her desire to add currently exempt property to the tax rolls while also re-distributing other tax dollars that are generated in...
I read with interest a recent article in The Advocate in which a group that includes Joe Jaeger is asking for large subsidies to build a 1,200-room hotel next to the Morial Convention Center, for which the Bureau of...
The Ernest N. Morial New Orleans Convention Center’s proposal to build a 1,200-room hotel on its property is drawing scrutiny from a good government watchdog group, which questions why the project is so reliant on public support in the...
NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) -The Bureau of Governmental Research, a watchdog group released an open-letter it sent to the New Orleans Convention Center Thursday which raises questions about the accuracy of a consultant’s analysis for a controversial hotel project the...
A local government watchdog offered a detailed rebuttal to arguments that it’s necessary for developers of a $558 million hotel project to receive public subsidies that will total hundreds of millions of dollars. The nonpartisan Bureau of Governmental Research...
The Bureau of Governmental Research (BGR) releases an open letter to the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. The letter sets forth BGR’s concerns about a Convention Center consultant’s recent analysis of the feasibility and economic impact of a proposed 1,200-room convention...
Convention Center officials on Wednesday (Aug. 22) released an economic impact study that showed a proposed 1,200-room Convention Center hotel would have an estimated $282 million economic impact. The study also shows the Convention Center hotel would generate about...
Hoping to counteract mounting criticism over plans to build a publicly subsidized 1,200-room hotel, Ernest N. Morial Convention Center officials on Wednesday endorsed a consultant’s view of the project’s potential benefits, which he estimated would be worth $282 million in...
NEW ORLEANS, LA (WVUE) – Residents packed the Convention Center board meeting Wednesday (Aug. 22) to voice their opinions on a multi-million-dollar hotel project proposed for the lot next to the facility. However, proponents say the 1,200-room hotel would...
NEW ORLEANS, LA (WVUE) – Leaders from the Convention Center are set to make their case for a proposed hotel on the river. It could cost hundreds of millions of dollars in public money. The Convention center argues that...
The Ernest N. Morial Convention Center Board would really like to build a hotel attached to the Convention Center — so badly it wants taxpayers to pay for much of it. Last month, the nonpartisan Bureau of Governmental Research...
New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell is voicing opposition to a proposal to build a 1,200-room hotel attached to the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center that would include a $41 million contribution from the Convention Center. Cantrell’s letter comes nearly a month...
The Bureau of Governmental Research (BGR) won two awards from the Governmental Research Association (GRA) at its national conference July 30 to August 1 in Detroit. BGR received the Outstanding Policy Achievement award for the 2016 report Reducing the...
NEW ORLEANS, LA (WVUE) – Mayor Latoya Cantrell is asking the Convention Center board to “defer all action” on a controversial plan to use hundreds of millions of public dollars to fund a new hotel. The mayor’s request comes just one month...
In the opening salvo in what could become a lengthy negotiation over whether the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center moves forward with its plans to build a high-rise hotel, Mayor LaToya Cantrell has expressed “grave concerns” about the large public subsidies...
A $557 million hotel proposed for the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center needs a thorough evaluation of the project’s need and financial details before an approval vote possibly late next month, according to a report released Thursday (July 19)...
Today, the Bureau of Governmental Research (BGR) releases Public Contributions to Convention Center Hotel Demand Scrutiny. The report provides an analytical framework for evaluating the necessity and size of a private development team’s requested public contributions to design, build and operate a...
A local government watchdog group is urging officials to take a more critical look at a request for hundreds of millions of dollars worth of public subsidies for a proposed high-rise hotel adjacent to the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. The nonpartisan...
Ernest N. Morial Convention Center officials are back at the negotiating table, hoping to finally realize their dream of building a high-rise anchor hotel and, in time, a retail and entertainment complex on a vacant 47-acre tract the center purchased nearly...
Update: A clarification was added to this story to indicate that municipal taxes were not factored in the Louisiana Tax Commission’s rankings. Three parishes in metro New Orleans were in the Top 10 with the highest property tax rates among...
Today, the Bureau of Governmental Research (BGR) releases From Answers to Action: Post-Election Policy Making. The report is the latest installment in BGR’s Candidate Q&A Election Series, which surveyed the mayoral and City Council candidates last fall about their positions on...
Second time’s the charm. That’s what members of the New Orleans Exhibition Hall Authority hope as they return to the negotiating table with a team of developers who have proposed building a $558 million, 1,200-room Omni Hotel at an...
The start of hurricane season always raises our collective anxiety level a bit. South Louisianians have to be on guard between June 1 and Nov. 30 — it’s a fact of life this close to the Gulf of Mexico....
New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell held a news conference on Tuesday (May 22) to level with the public about the city’s flood risk and to outline how her administration is trying to “unclog” funding sources to mitigate risk. Cantrell said she...
Voters on the west bank of Jefferson Parish on Saturday overwhelmingly approved a new property tax that will fund critical maintenance work on the federal levees that protect the area from flooding. After rejecting a similar tax proposal in...
When it comes to taxes, essential services have to be paid for, and one of them in Louisiana more than almost anyplace else in the world is flood protection. But a property tax millage for flood protection in West...
The Times-Picayune editorial board makes the following recommendation for Saturday’s (April 28) election. JEFFERSON PARISH WEST JEFFERSON LEVEE DISTRICT PROPOSITION To increase property taxes by 4.75 mills for 10 years for maintenance of the flood control system Yes The Southeast...
Today the Bureau of Governmental Research (BGR) releases On the Ballot: West Jefferson Levee District Property Tax, April 28, 2018. On April 28, voters on the west bank of Jefferson Parish will decide whether to approve a new property tax for the...
On some days, you need nerves of steel to drive down Louisiana Avenue during rush hour. It’s one of several arteries torn up under a $2 billion effort to improve drainage in Orleans and Jefferson parishes under the Southeast...
After years of stalled negotiations, Ernest N. Morial Convention Center officials have returned to the drawing board as they seek ways to kick-start a potentially $1.5 billion riverfront development that would include a 1,200-room hotel, retail space, restaurants and entertainment...
The Sewerage & Water Board will open the new year facing both a federal audit of its post-Hurricane Katrina spending and a $56.6 million deficit in its funding for drainage projects. Though unrelated, the two new revelations show continuing...
The Jefferson Parish School Board most likely will ask voters for a tax increase next spring to fund teacher pay raises and facility upgrades, but just how much of a hike has yet to be decided. At its meeting Tuesday (Dec....
METAIRIE, LA (WVUE) – Jefferson Parish School Board members are debating which way to go next after voters narrowly defeated a measure that would have raised teacher pay. The Jefferson Parish School System is drawing more students in recent years, thanks in...
Just days after Jefferson Parish voters narrowly rejected a new property tax to fund a pay raise for public school employees, School Board members are gearing up for new tax proposals they hope to put before voters in the...
Jefferson Parish School Board member Cedric Floyd said Tuesday (Nov. 21) that he wants voters to reconsider an 8.45-mill property tax that was rejected on Saturday. The tax, estimated to generate $27 million a year, would be dedicated to teacher and...
There are several issues and races on the ballot throughout south Louisiana for today’s election, including a statewide contest to pick the next treasurer and a high-profile race for mayor in New Orleans. We urge everyone to go to...
New Orleans voters have agreed to create a safety net for the city’s finances, establishing a “rainy day” fund with a charter change that gained citywide approval Saturday (Nov. 18). The city will be required to set aside for emergencies...
Jefferson Parish voters on Saturday narrowly rejected an 8.45-mill, 10-year property tax that would have paid for salary increases for school system employees, tossing aside arguments that the parish’s teachers need to be paid more to make the system...
Jefferson Parish voters narrowly rejected a new 8.45-mill property tax Saturday (Nov. 18) that school officials requested to boost teacher pay. With more than 41,600 votes cast, the tax was rejected by a margin of 484 votes. The tax was proposed...
In 7 1/2 years, together with the City Council and the people of New Orleans, we have righted the ship of government. Today, our financial house is stronger, going from a budget deficit to a budget surplus, and our...
Jefferson Parish schools are asking taxpayers to vote “yes” on Saturday to a new 8.5 mil property tax. The money would be used to give teachers and school employees their first across the board pay raise in 10 years....
The Jefferson Parish public school system is asking voters to approve a new 8.45-mill property tax on the Nov. 18 ballot that school officials say is needed to boost teacher pay. The tax would help increase the starting pay of first...
It’s been a rocky few months for the Jefferson Parish School Board: Longtime member Ray St. Pierre died, parents protested shifting attendance zones on the east bank, and board member Cedric Floyd tried to get Superintendent Isaac Joseph suspended....
NEW ORLEANS, LA (WVUE) – The unexpected July and August outraged many people in the city and revealed deficiencies in the drainage system. Come 2018, either Latoya Cantrell or Desiree Charbonnet will have a lot of say at the...
Early voting begins Friday across the state for the Nov. 18 election, with the runoffs for New Orleans mayor and two city council seats drawing the most attention, along with a statewide race for treasurer and other local tax...
When Mayor Mitch Landrieu and a new City Council took office in May 2010, New Orleans was broke. The mayor and council took drastic measures to put the city’s fiscal house in order, and those tough choices have, for...
NEW ORLEANS — The city’s traffic cameras became a hot-button issue after their numbers nearly doubled over the past year. The big question for mayoral candidates during WWL-TV’s televised debate on Oct. 11 was if the revenue justified the...
Saturday is Election Day, and in virtually every race, candidates are attacking and counter-attacking with a vengeance. It’s ironic that so much information is available online these days, yet so many voters say they don’t know much about the...
WDSU-TV’s New Orleans mayoral debate on Tuesday (Oct. 3) was a careful, plodding affair with almost no friction between the candidates, and a list of boilerplate questions that did little to differentiate the candidates from one another. Anchorman Scott Walker, the...
The government agency overseeing Jefferson Parish’s two bus systems is sitting on a big pile of cash: $21.2 million. And parish officials want more. They’re asking voters Oct. 14 to renew two property taxes that fund the conventional fixed-route bus service and...
Six leading New Orleans mayoral candidates vowed this week to keep the troubled Sewerage & Water Board under city management, but said they would appoint expert overseers or modernize the agency so that crises like this week’s 24-hour boil-water...
We’re now less than two weeks away from early voting in the New Orleans citywide elections, and so far no mayoral candidate has captured voters’ imagination or articulated a message that resonates. In fact, most voters’ reaction to the...
Everybody is looking for answers from the crowded field of candidates for the New Orleans mayoral race. The nonprofit watchdog Bureau for Governmental Research took its crack at it, calling on each of the 18 candidates to answer questions...
In the midst of new concerns about the reliability of the Sewerage & Water Board’s drainage system and longstanding complaints about broken streets and other infrastructure, City Councilwoman LaToya Cantrell is proposing to direct $84 million a year toward...
Mayor Mitch Landrieu is in the early stages of a plan to put a stormwater management fee proposal before the New Orleans City Council to help pay for improvements to the city’s troubled drainage system. Similar fees are in place in 39...
The Bureau of Governmental Research (BGR) won two awards from the Governmental Research Association (GRA) at its national conference July 16-18, 2017, in Salt Lake City. BGR won the Outstanding Policy Achievement award for the 2013 report Sound the...
New Orleans’ ambitious plan to pour billions of dollars into fixing its crumbling streets is already behind schedule before it has really gotten started. The city had expected to accept bids by the end of July on the first 30...
A new report from the Bureau of Government Research says New Orleans isn’t using ANY traffic camera money to fix the streets. Our guest, Amy Glovinsky, President of the Bureau of Governmental Research says, “on the issue of traffic...
This week on All Things New Orleans, we chat with Stand with Dignity’s lead organizer, Toya Lewis, about a series of song story workshops. Then, we’ll discuss a report on street maintenance and how to pay for it with...
NEW ORLEANS — According to a new report, the City of New Orleans is only spending $3.8 million on street maintenance and none of that is coming from traffic camera fines. Ask any New Orleans driver, our city streets...
NEW ORLEANS – BGR released “Paying for Streets: Options for Funding Road Maintenance in New Orleans,” yesterday, Tuesday, May 9. With the city embarking on a $2 billion program for capital repairs to its street network, the report explores...
The city of New Orleans only spends an average of $3.8 million annually on street maintenance tasks like pothole repairs — a fraction of the $30 million to $35 million officials say they need to cover the costs of maintaining...
New Orleans property owners are venting their frustration after finding a second property tax bill for 2017 in their mailboxes this week. The reason: Voters on Dec. 10 approved a new property tax millage for fire protection and renewed a tax...
Voters throughout Jefferson Parish will be asked Saturday to renew the 6.5-mill property tax that funds the parish’s public library system, while River Ridge and a handful of Metairie voters will decide whether to pay more to become part...
This week on All Things New Orleans, we spoke with representatives of the Global Livingston Institute about their annual iKnow Concert Series in Uganda. Dr. Andrew Ward and Tom Larson, Chairman and Musical Director, both urge New Orleans artists...
The New Orleans Sewerage & Water Board should consider levying usage fees to pay for the upkeep of its drainage system rather than relying on the property taxes that now fund the system, according to a new report from...
Tuesday (Jan. 31) was the deadline for New Orleans property owners to pay their 2017 taxes, but they can expect another bill in the coming months. The reason: Voters on Dec. 10 approved a new property tax millage for...
Jerry Bologna (JEDCO President & CEO) and Robert Edgecombe (GCR, Inc. Urban Planner and Consultant) spoke at a BGR Breakfast Briefing in Jefferson Parish. This Breakfast Briefing was sponsored by IBERIABANK. Edgecombe presented Jefferson Parish demographic trends. Bologna followed with...
Released in 2015, BGR’s report The $1 Billion Question: Do the Tax Dedications in New Orleans Make Sense? serves as a critical fact base for Lee Zurik’s Finding the Funds. The investigative series looks into Convention Center taxes. For BGR’s complete analysis,...
BGR won two awards from the Governmental Research Association (GRA) at its national conference in Pittsburgh, Pa., on Tuesday, July 26, 2016. BGR won the award for Outstanding Policy Achievement for the report The Accidental Steward: The Orleans Parish School...
