Analyzing the Results of the 2019 New Orleans Bond Authorization

October 20, 2025 • Bureau of Governmental Research

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This Beyond the Ballot report enhances public transparency and accountability for the 2019 New Orleans bond authorization and helps residents understand its uses and impacts.

Overview

Six years ago, New Orleans voters authorized the City of New Orleans (City) to borrow $500 million in bonds to fund capital improvements. The ballot question allowed for a broad range of capital projects. These included improvements to City infrastructure, public facilities and equipment, and affordable housing facilities. Before voting on a new set of bonds for similar purposes on November 15, residents should understand the uses and impact of this previous authorization. BGR prepared this Beyond the Ballot report – the first in an occasional series on the results of key ballot issues – to enhance public transparency and accountability for the 2019 bond authorization. Scroll down to see the report’s findings and recommendations.

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BGR published an On the Ballot report analyzing the three new City bond propositions in the November 15 election for City infrastructure, drainage and stormwater management, and affordable housing – totaling $510 million. On the Ballot reports provide voters with objective, nonpartisan analysis to make an informed decision.

The Bond Issues

The City issued $500 million in bonds through two sales in 2021 ($300 million) and 2024 ($200 million). The City achieved a positive outcome for taxpayers by meeting the qualifications to issue most of the bonds as tax-exempt, as BGR recommended. This will yield an estimated $88.5 million in interest cost savings for the City and taxpayers over 30 years.
The City sold the bonds at a premium. This brought net proceeds to $589.6 million, a nearly 18% increase over the $500 million face value. The premium resulted from the 5% interest rate on these bonds exceeding prevailing market rates at the time. The City intends to refinance the debt at a lower interest rate when possible after the first 10 years. However, if rates are not more favorable than the bonds’ current interest rate, the City would delay refinancing. This would cause taxpayers to carry the debt service cost of the current 5% rate for a longer time, eroding the benefit of raising more up-front capital.

Tracking the Uses of Bond Proceeds

The City Council has appropriated all proceeds from the bond sales authorized by voters in 2019. About one-third remained unspent as of August 8, 2025, when BGR received complete data for this analysis.
As shown in the chart, 95% of the bond funds went to City facilities, equipment and infrastructure. The remaining 5% supported affordable housing development. Click here to explore a list of City of New Orleans bond-funded projects.
Compared to its original spending plan pitched to voters before the 2019 election, the City spent $74.4 million more on public facilities and equipment (33%), $19 million less on infrastructure (-8%), and $7 million more on affordable housing (28%). Aside from the extra proceeds from the bond premium, these shifts were mainly driven by cost inflation and other pressures, such as the court-mandated medical and mental health services wing of the Orleans Parish jail, known as Phase III.
While the City kept a comprehensive record of bond uses, the lack of public-facing information blurs accountability for public dollars. It could have done more to share that information with residents who otherwise face the challenge of tracking the myriad City Council ordinances appropriating and re-appropriating the bond funds.

Bond Projects and Their Impacts

The City appropriated $299.4 million to public facilities and equipment. This spending mainly funded facilities and equipment for public safety and justice system agencies ($120.4 million) and much-needed capital renovations to public buildings ($83.6 million). Another key area of spending was parks and recreational facilities ($43.8 million). The City is also using $31.6 million from this set of bonds to relocate Gordon Plaza residents from the site of a former landfill and prepare the vacated land for redevelopment and $20 million to the redevelopment of Charity Hospital.
The $231 million for infrastructure primarily improved streets, roads and bridges ($156.5 million). The City directed another $20.2 million to stormwater management. Key projects also received bond proceeds. These were the Sewerage and Water Board’s new electrical power complex ($37.9 million) and the early stages of the redevelopment of Lincoln Beach in eastern New Orleans ($16.4 million).
$32 million went toward expanding affordable housing in the city. Of this, $14.8 million helped fill financing gaps for five housing developments. These projects will produce 193 affordable housing units in the coming years. The City indicated it deposited the remaining available funds ($17.2 million) into its Housing Trust Fund. The trust fund’s governing ordinance guides how these funds will be deployed. Effective administration and accountability are essential for the Housing Trust Fund to help address the city’s acute housing affordability problems.
Overall, the 2019 bonds helped tackle urgent capital needs and shift money to address major cost increases and key community projects. The City redirected $50.1 million to Phase III and $16.3 million to renovations for the Municipal and Traffic Court. The City also used bonds to fund two major legal settlements. $20 million will fund Tulane University’s redevelopment of Charity Hospital and $31.6 million will go to the residents and redevelopment of Gordon Plaza. The reallocations came from other capital projects, such as a new emergency operations center and a recreation center.

Key Steps for the Future

By continuing to employ strategies to spend funds effectively, the City can maintain the tax-exempt status of its bonds. At BGR’s urging, the City restored its ability to issue tax-exempt bonds before issuing the bonds authorized in 2019. Bondholders do not have to pay federal income taxes on interest earnings. This ultimately lowered the rates paid by the City and taxpayers. The City issued all but the $32 million of affordable housing bonds as tax-exempt. This will save New Orleans taxpayers an estimated $88.5 million in interest over the 30-year life of the bonds. Maintaining tax-exempt status will help the City ensure more interest savings for taxpayers on any future bonds.
The City still lacks sufficient funding to maintain key infrastructure and facility assets. This creates a serious risk of diminishing their useful lives. Properly maintaining capital assets is especially important for projects financed with bonds. Government finance experts recommend that the bond payment period should not exceed the useful life of the capital purchase or investment. Adequate maintenance funding is also essential to get the full benefit of the City’s new system for managing infrastructure and facility assets.

Conclusion and Recommendations

Overall, the City used the bond proceeds from the 2019 voter authorization to fund a wide range of facilities, equipment, infrastructure and housing needs. The broad spending flexibility under the bond proposition allowed it to meet emerging capital priorities and cost inflation related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Public facilities, such as the jail and the Sewerage & Water Board’s power complex, required greater City investments. But the City’s spending revisions left other projects in search of resources. Beyond those, there are other unmet capital needs. Future bond issues, such as the upcoming November 15 propositions, will have to take up the slack.

BGR recommends that the next mayor and council should:

Develop a funding strategy to ensure proper preventive maintenance and repair for current and future capital investments. The City is taking a critical step to address this with its new asset management system. However, this will only be effective if the City pairs this with a stable and adequate source of funding to maintain infrastructure and facility projects. Preserving these capital assets is key to ensuring they perform effectively. This would also help decrease the backlog of deferred maintenance while lowering long-term capital costs for taxpayers. The City should develop such a strategy prior to any new bond issues. Deploying limited taxpayer dollars wisely is essential to meet the City’s vast capital needs.

Optimize bond management by spending down bond proceeds in a timely manner and carefully considering opportunities to refinance the bonds. Currently, the City’s bond spending is on track to meet the requirements to maintain tax-exempt status. It should continue this trend as it issues bonds to reap more interest cost savings. The City also needs to carefully consider future opportunities to refinance the current premium bonds and curtail their long-term interest costs for taxpayers. Before issuing new bonds with a significant premium, the City should weigh the benefits against the extra interest payments if future market conditions are not favorable for refinancing.

Improve the transparency of current and future bonds with a public-facing dashboard before the next bond issuance. To get a full picture of the use of 2019 bonds, BGR collected related ordinances and requested detailed information from City officials. Gathering this information is cumbersome for interested residents. A public-facing dashboard would resolve this issue. Among other things, this dashboard should include up-to-date information on bond appropriations, expenditures, and reallocations for current and future bond issues. The new administration and council should launch this dashboard on the City’s website prior to any new issues of bonds.

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