The Louisiana Legislative Auditor sheds light on just how big the city of New Orleans's deficit for the next fiscal year is, and it's bigger than all of the projections we'd heard.
"Your spending deficit for this year is going to be for about $160 million," legislative auditor Mike Waguespack told members of the city council on Wednesday.
Waguespack told council members that at least $40 million of that deficit is the result of bad budgeting. Specifically, Waguespack said the city underbudgeted police overtime to the tune of two decimal points.
"The city budgeted $57,500 for overtime," Waguespack said. "Year to date through September 29, we've spent $40 million in overtime."
Council members grilled budget officials about that spending deficit. Those officials told council members that in the past, the mayor's office budgeted for unfilled positions that have since been cut, allowing them to pay overtime with no problems.
"When we were presented with the budget for 2025, did the administration account for overtime?" Councilman J. P. Morrell asked.
"We did not," a budget official replied. "All vacant positions were removed. If the NOPD had 1,200 (positions) in the budget and we only had 1,000 filled, with those vacant 200 positions, we were able to absorb (the overtime) in any other department. It didn't become an issue for us to look at until '23, '24, and '25 because we didn't have those extra budget dollars to pull from."