Here’s the Mayor’s COVID recovery priorities.
New Orleans has received $388 million from The American Rescue Plan (ARP) in two payments. The majority of the first payment went toward keeping City services operational in 2020 and 2021. On June 14th, the Mayor released her initial priorities for the second payment, which will amount to $194 million.
Mayor Cantrell’s Proposed Priorities
It includes significant funding for Economic Development, Affordable Housing, and Public Safety, and some funds for health, sanitation, and new & improved technology and equipment.
There’s still a lot we don’t know; including specific plans, a breakdown of how much money will go to each use specified here, and how the City will rank these priorities.
The preliminary priorities also add up to $119 million more than the total available fundng. The Chief Administrative Office (CAO) is responsible for trimming this list of priorities down, before submitting it to City Council for approval.
City Council will have to vote to allocate the funds before the Administration can spend it.
How much American Rescue Plan money is there?
New Orleans was allocated about $388 million from the American Rescue Plan.
For scale, that’s about 59% of the City’s usual annual operating budget (BGR).
What’s the money for?
The American Rescue Plan (ARP) money is flexible, one-time money. It was meant to keep the City operating, and help the people who suffered most from the pandemic. The City has until 2024 to spend the money. Approved ARP expenses include public health, economic relief to people and businesses, water and broadband infrastructure, and replacing lost tax revenue. (Learn more on our Residents Guide to the American Rescue Plan webinar here.)
The Federal government also intended for these funds to help reduce inequities. The pandemic brought to light major disparities in health and economic outcomes for Americans. In New Orleans, black adults were up to twelve times more likely to die from the pandemic than their white neighbors (Data Center). The pandemic also made existing income inequalities worse as our economy suffered (Data Center).
How has New Orleans spent the first half of ARP funds?
Most of the first $194 million payment went toward restoring lost tax revenue.
It has been difficult to track the spending exactly, despite an ordinance passed by City Council that requires greater transparency. The ordinance (Ordinance No. 33,698) requires the CAO’s office to make monthly reports about ARP spending to the Council’s Budget committee, and maintain a public-facing dashboard that tracks spending and outcomes on 7 categories of spending:
City of New Orleans ARPA Dashboard, as of July 6, 2022 (Last Updated: June 1, 2022)
Public Health
Negative Economic Impacts
Services to Disproportionately Impacted Communities
Premium Pay
Infrastructure (Water & Broadband)
Revenue Replacement
Administrative and Other
According to the dashboard, the City has allocated about $187.3 million to replacing lost revenue to NOPD and NOFD. $5 million went to helping residents with utility bills after Hurricane Ida, and $1.5 million was set aside for “Broadband - Other projects.”
What happens now?
To date, the Administration has not released any more information about the proposed priorities, or how they’ll decide what gets funded and what gets cut (or covered by other funding sources). CBNO has requested more information from the CAO’s office, and offered our support for an inclusive process to weigh priorities before they submit their proposal to City Council for approval.
What do you think?
Fill out our online form with more information about your priorities. It’ll inform our strategy and advocacy for an equitable recovery.
#ShowUsTheMoney
Tell your Council person and neighborhood liaison! We need:
Concrete plans — including a funding breakdown, desired outcomes, and strategies to accomplish those outcomes
Rationale — how were these priorities developed? How will they reduce disparities in New Orleans and help us recover?
Meaningful Engagement — how did data and community voice inform these decisions? What can residents do to influence the spending?
A better dashboard — the dashboard should track both spending and outcomes, and demonstrate clearly what this funding has been used for.
