The New Orleans City Government is facing a $100 million budget shortfall for the current fiscal year. Now, the chairman of the city council's budget committee says he and the rest of the council are looking at how to balance that budget.
"At this point, everything has to be on the table," city councilman Joe Giarrusso told WWL's Tommy Tucker. "Are there things we can cut? Are there other things we can do? We're just going to have to manage through it."
Giarrusso says one place the council will seek to cut funding is the mayor's office.
"The mayor has some funding, I would argue, that is discretionary, mainly towards tourism and cultural issues," Giarrusso said.
Giarrusso says the council will have to make some hard choices in the coming weeks and months. He added that residents won't feel any pain caused by immediate changes, but they could feel the impact of later cuts.
"From $30 to $40 million, I think, we can find very easily, and then we're going to have some real strong discussions about the remainder of that, and we will," Giarrusso said. "The two biggest issues are: what is that everything on the table, how fair is it to the residents and the people here, and how do we make it all work?"
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