New Orleans Mayor Helena Moreno's proposed budget is now public, and that $763 million spending plan calls for steep cuts to fill a nearly $100 million deficit.
"This is a tough budget," Moreno said during a special city council meeting on Tuesday. "There are significant reductions in it. There are choices none of us would make if resources were unlimited, but there is also something important to relay: as difficult as this budget is, our city is in much stronger financial position today than we were one year ago."
The cuts to city programs and services include the elimination of 152 full-time city jobs, shutting down the city's low-barrier shelter, and a 10-percent pay cut for the mayor and chief administrative officer. In all, those cuts will save the city $77 million.
"This year, we have to make difficult decisions to make sure that we do not fall back into (a budget crisis)," Moreno said. "That is progress even if the work ahead remains hard."
Chief Administrative Officer Joe Giarrusso echoed that sentiment.
"We are balanced," Giarrusso told the council. "The reserves have been restored, and instead of gasping for air and treading water, this budget puts us back above it."
Mayor Helena Moreno says her administration listened to residents before deciding what to cut and what to protect.
"There will be no furloughs in 2027, cuts to (the New Orleans Recreation Development Commission) or the Council on Aging. We have directed our public safety agencies to protect frontline personnel as much as possible, and we have prioritized the basic services that residents told us mattered to them: sanitation, streets and sidewalks, streetlights, public safety, and the everyday functions that people expect their city government to deliver," Moreno said.
