Overview
Understanding Pensions: A Primer on Public Employee Pension Plans is the first in a series of reports on the public pension plans in which local governments in Jefferson, Orleans and St. Tammany parishes participate.
Understanding Pensions: A Primer on Public Employee Pension Plans is the first in a series of reports on the public pension plans in which local governments in Jefferson, Orleans and St. Tammany parishes participate.
BGR’s Candidate Q&A reports ask the candidates for mayor, City Council and sheriff in the October 11, 2025 primary election to explain how they will address important public policy issues if elected. BGR developed the questions based on our body of research. Many of these issues have close ties to concerns that voters themselves have […]
This BGR NOW report analyzes a proposal in the spring legislative session to increase pension benefits for New Orleans firefighters. While the proposal will not move forward, BGR finds several concerns and risks for the City of New Orleans and taxpayers that any future attempt to change the pension plan should address.
OVERVIEW BGR’s report, A Retreat on Pension Reform: City of New Orleans Reverses Steps to Rein in Sharply Rising Pension Costs by Increasing Benefits, analyzes the City’s little-publicized decision last fall to reverse pension benefit reductions intended to address a steady weakening of the pension system’s finances and a steep rise in the public’s costs.
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 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 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 Reducing the Cost of Tomorrow: A Practical Guide to Pension Reform in Jefferson, Orleans and St. Tammany Parishes explores the changes to public pension benefits policymakers can make to reduce the costs and risks associated with the pension plans. The report is the fourth installment in a series of BGR pension reports.
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 In Sound the Alarm, BGR examines the New Orleans Fire Fighters’ Pension and Relief Fund – which has become a major financial burden for the public – and relevant bills under consideration by the Legislature in 2013.
Overview In The Rising Cost of Yesterday: Metro Area Pension Costs and the Factors that Drive Them, BGR examines 18 defined benefit pension plans available to local government workers in Jefferson, Orleans and St. Tammany parishes (the Plans). The report tallies the costs the Plans impose on local government entities in the three parishes, and […]
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 […]
Overview Understanding Pensions: A Primer on Public Employee Pension Plans is the first in a series of reports on the public pension plans in which local governments in Jefferson, Orleans and St. Tammany parishes participate.
Overview This edition of Now looks at the issue of public pension costs. In the coming months, BGR will release reports digging deeper into public pension costs, with a particular focus on the retirement systems in the New Orleans area. We will examine public pension plans in Jefferson, Orleans and St. Tammany parishes, compare the […]
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 […]
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 third […]
On April 24, 2024, the Bureau of Governmental Research (BGR) published Altering New Orleans Firefighter Benefits Demands Careful Analysis and Justification. The report analyzed a proposal in the spring legislative session to increase pension benefits for New Orleans firefighters....
This radio interview with Newell Normand and BGR President and CEO Rebecca Mowbray is no longer available online. Click here to read BGR’s report.
Eight years after a landmark legal settlement quelled a bitter public feud between New Orleans firefighters and City Hall, a controversy is stirring again over the city’s woefully underfunded fire pension. Unlike the 2016 spectacle, in which former Mayor...
This interview with BGR President and CEO Rebecca Mowbray is no longer available online. Click here to read BGR’s report.
Today, the Bureau of Governmental Research (BGR) released a new report, Altering New Orleans Firefighter Pension Benefits Demands Careful Analysis and Justification. It was prompted by BGR’s concerns about state legislation to reverse pension benefit cuts from a landmark 2016...
A recent hike in pension benefits for New Orleans municipal employees will cost taxpayers millions and is fiscally irresponsible, a nonprofit think tank said in a report Wednesday. The Bureau of Governmental Research took aim at the city’s move...
Today the Bureau of Governmental Research (BGR) releases a new report, A Retreat on Pension Reform: City of New Orleans Reverses Steps to Rein in Sharply Rising Pension Costs by Increasing Benefits. The report examines the City’s decision last...
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...
Current New Orleans City Hall employees will avoid changes to their retirement plans under a deal City Councilwoman Stacy Head cut to apply changes designed to save taxpayers money only to employees hired after Jan. 1. Head has been seeking changes...
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...
After a boisterous New Orleans City Council committee meeting Thursday at which dozens of city workers railed against a proposal to make the municipal pension plan less generous for newer employees, the proposal was yanked by its sponsor, who...
We’re running out of time. That’s how I feel with a little less than a year left in office as a council member. Election season is heating up and you will begin to hear much from candidates about their...
New Orleans City Councilwoman Stacy Head is proposing changes that would make the city’s main pension plan less generous for new employees and those hired in the past 10 years — changes she said are necessary for the long-term viability...