The New Orleans City Council is not giving up hope on getting a loan from the Louisiana Bond Commission.
City Council President JP Morrell told WWL's Tommy Tucker that city leaders will meet with state leaders to find out if getting any aid from them is possible.
"The mayor-elect, myself, and the council budget chairman, Joe Giarrusso, will be meeting on the 5th with state partners to see if we can reach an agreement on this $125 million gap loan to get us through the end of the year," Morrell said. "The current mayor is going to have very little say in what this next budget looks like because these last few budgets have been a mess."
According to Morrell, the city has only $25 million in the bank--not counting rainy day funds. That's two week's worth of payroll. Morrell says, for now, the city has frozen all hiring and overtime and is looking at pushing as many debt payments as possible to next year. Morrell noted the city is also looking at collecting outstanding debts and fines, revenues that could help provide the city some financial cushion.
"Primarily, the council's job is finding the revenue to get through the end of the year and shaping the budget for next year," Morrell said.
In addition, Morrell says the council will make major cuts to the 2026 budget.
"Next year's budget is going to be much, much skinnier and much more . . . It's going to be borderline austerity just to get us back into a position where our budget is solvent," Morrell said.