NEW ORLEANS, La. ( WGNO)- It’s been a tough year for everyone, especially New Orleans’ top-producing industries. With the tourism and the service industries suffering, that means a substantial decrease in taxes are being collected. From there, it becomes a ripple effect. The city will have to make budget cuts then, furloughs.
Budget hearings begin again this morning. The New Orleans City Council kicked off the 2021 budget hearings last Monday, November 9, 2020.
A reoccurring concern as the council discusses the new budgets, is the drastically reduced department budgets.
The City of New Orleans’ budget is projected to shrink by roughly $92 million. Pre-Covid the city was in a completely different situation but, since some of the top producing industries are suffering from the pandemic, like the tourism industry and food industry, tax collections are down. That means budget cuts have to be made.
Today, Monday, November 16, is day six of the city of New Orleans’ budget hearings. They are expected to take up nine department budgets, which include the New Orleans Fire Department, EMS, Health Department, Homeland Security, Orleans Parish Communications, Civic Affairs, Algiers Development District, New Orleans Museum of Art, and Juvenile Court.
Today’s budget hearing begins at 9:00 am. It will be virtual. If you want to follow along and hear what is happening, you can watch on the council’s Youtube page or click here. The meeting will be live-streamed online so that residents can be in the know.
There is one more hearing tomorrow.
At this point, we could see budget cuts up to 40 percent and hundreds of employees could end up furloughed.
