New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell announced Friday she is vetoing the 2026 budget that was for the most part created by her successor, City Council Vice President and mayor-elect Helena Moreno.
The veto is largely symbolic, as it passed unanimously and will be overridden at the council's next meeting, Councilmember and budget committee chairman Joe Giarrusso told our partners at NOLA.com.
"I am absolutely unsurprised by this," Giarrusso told the publication. "What's frustrating though is that this is punitive for the people of New Orleans."
The mayor said she vetoed the budget because it relied on an "unworkable" plan of "revenue that is uncertain, unverified, or based on one-time sources."
Curiously, the city charter gives the mayor ten calendar days to veto ordinances after the council passes them. Friday is eleven days since the council passed the budget at its December 1 meeting.