Council Holds Public Hearing On NOLA Budget

NEW ORLEANS - WDSU .com

City leaders hosted a public hearing to talk about New Orleans' $68 million deficit on Wednesday.

Inside council chambers, council members Shelley Midura and Stacy Head addressed about 30 people who showed up to watch a PowerPoint presentation that they said boiled down to one thing: the city is in financial trouble.

"It's bare bones," Midura said. "But our job is to educate people about the information we've got, about the realities of the city budget and then to make decisions based on those discussions."

The city's total budget for 2010 stands at $1.1 billion but includes many deep cuts. The new budget calls for $16 million to be sliced from the sheriff's office and nearly $1 million from the district attorney's office. Sheriff Marlin Gusman and D.A. Leon Cannizaro have both said the cuts would cripple them.

"The sheriff's $16 million that he wants is no ton the budget books," MIdura said. "So if he wants that $16 million, someone on the council is going to have to take that up that cause and find the 16 million from other departments. Same goes for the D.A. We're going to have to take from Peter to pay Paul. That's just the way it is."

Some New Orleans locals who attended the hearing said they were dismayed at the lack of cooperation between city departments.

"You have all of these departments at City Hall and none of them work together," said Cassandra Sharpe. "They don't work together. They're all separate entities."

Head said officials were focused on making sure that the city is run as efficiently as possible.

"We need to start looking at what is our end goal," she said. "And if the end goal is to provide a service in the most efficient way possible, then the emotion factor should really play a part."

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