The City of New Orleans is facing tough budgetary times right now, but the transparency with which Mayor Helena Moreno is addressing the subject is encouraging.
Indeed, the can-do attitude on the budget is just one in a series of good-news indicators for the Crescent City.
Like at least two other mayors before her, Moreno has been holding town halls around the city to discuss the budget. The give-and-take has been constructive and enlightening. What’s new is that the city also has posted an so ordinary citizens, on their own time, can drill down, department by department, to see budgetary trends and priorities.
Combined with fiscal audits Moreno has secured, these steps help ensure that tax dollars are far less likely to be misused or wasted. And while the coming year’s budget, which Moreno expects to submit on Sept. 22, is expected to be , the good news, as Chief Administrative Officer Joe Giarrusso III said at one town hall, is that “We stabilized the crisis. We aren’t in chaos anymore.”
The administration says it expects to pass a budget anywhere near as heavily on unsustainable, one-time funding sources. And all while publicly tracking better performance in city services (filling potholes, fixing broken lights) and launching new initiatives such as a in New Orleans East.
Also, the city has finally its long-running financial dispute with the Orleans Parish School Board, clearing a huge and potentially expensive headache. And FEMA has given the city a break, allowing work on the long-vacant to retain $38 million in federal funding even though it missed a deadline set for the end of 2025.
The even better news is that the private sector and public-private partnerships are also stepping up investment in the city. The big news on the latter front involves four separate U.S. Navy commands, including the at the University of New Orleans, signing an agreement with Greater New Orleans Inc. to with a number of local businesses for job-producing projects to help the Navy do its work.
Meanwhile, major private-sector players are showing they believe New Orleans is worth new investments. Saints owner the BankPlus Tower office building on Poydras Street even though it had $40 million worth of outstanding debt. Entrepreneur Henry Coaxum has launched the first bank to be chartered in Louisiana , to be located near the Riverbend section of New Orleans.
And Laitram Industries, the largest manufacturing sector employer in the metro area, has , with its major division growing 10% annually.
And all this comes as to levels not seen in nearly 60 years.
Maybe, just maybe, New Orleans is really on the move.