The cost of Mardi Gras, and the cost of picking up your trash, could be going up when the New Orleans City Council meets today.
The city of New Orleans has modified its plans for increasing the amount of money carnival krewes pay.
It has gone from $25 per float rider fee, to an $850 per float fee, to now, a three- tiered permit fee based on how big a parade is.
Councilmember Freddie King says this comes after a lot of discussion with krewe captains.
"This is something that when speaking with the Mardi Gras krewes, they felt comfortable putting this type of approval on it, so we did have a lot of communication," said King.
The administration says there is nearly a $4 million deficit in direct revenue from Mardi Gras versus its Mardi Gras-related expenditures.
Even though Mardi Gras brings in hundreds of thousands of visitors, and fills tens of thousands of hotel rooms in New Orleans, City Councilmember Eugene Green says very little of that money actually goes to the city.
"The hotel-motel tax, which is approximately fifteen or sixteen percent, the city of New Orleans gets 1.5 percent," he said.
The council today will also consider an increase of a little more than eight dollars to the sanitation fee it charges residents.
"This'll substantially help us close the gap," New Orleans Mayor Helena Moreno told WWL's Newell Normand. "It's over $20 million that we'll now be getting to close this gap that has been such a drain on our general fund for quite some time."
Helena Moreno says the cost of the garbage contracts have gone up, but sanitation fees have stayed put since 2011.
