The city of New Orleans won't be seeking state bonds to get out of its budget rut, so what exactly is the city doing to end the deficit?
New Orleans chief administrative officer Joe Giarrusso told WWL's Newell Normand that the plan is multi-faceted.
"We're trying to make sure we right-size government," Giarrusso said. "It's a combination of: how do you use your personnel the right way (and) where are your operating costs going?"
Giarrusso said the Moreno Administration eliminating city jobs and slashing overtime and travel budgets.
"We are leaner right now than we were last year," Giarrusso said, noting that the city government is down 200 employees since January. "The city had spent about $200,000 on travel (in 2025). We're at about $26,000 through quarter two this year--an almost 90-percent reduction."
However, Giarrusso noted that cuts can only go so far. He said city leaders will have to look at ways to raise revenue to fill the city's coffers. According to Giarrusso, the city has already identified some of those sources.
One of them is stepped up parking enforcement.
"I know people don't like it, but the reality is the city makes money from parking and parking enforcement," Giarrusso said. "Now that we've aggressively started booting people, I've gotten phone calls about, well, 'I didn't realize I had $2,000 worth of tickets. What can I do about it?' Pay your tickets!"
Another is more aggressive tax collections.
"It's money that the city needs in order to do its things," Giarrusso said. "The last time I saw the numbers on property tax, we were about 93-percent collected and close 50 percent on sales tax, which is where you'd expect to be on sales at this point in the year."
