UPDATE: RESCHEDULED — Mayor announces Budget Town Halls
This is your first opportunity to learn how the Mayor and her team plan to spend over $700 million of your taxes, fines, fees, and other public money in 2025. This is the money that goes toward fixing streets and infrastructure, community mobility and safety, picking up trash, operating community programs, and keeping the government running. It's your money, so you have a say in what happens with it. Here's what you need to know.
📆 When & Where
There will be just one meeting this year:
IN PERSON: Tuesday, August 27th, 5-7:30 pm at UNO’s Senator Ted Hickey Ballroom, 2000 Alumni Dr., 2nd floor.
The meeting will be streamed on nola.gov and the City’s social media platforms. It will also be recorded and published on the City’s youtube, and run on the Cox Government Access channel.
What to expect
A chance to hear from the Mayor and department heads about their proposed programs and spending for the year ahead. The presentation is typically the bulk of the meeting, and is generally given by the Mayor. All Department Directors are also required to attend. They typically accept a limited number of questions from attendees on comment cards, which are read aloud by the MC.
The in-person meeting will have a Resource Fair from 5-6pm for residents to learn about City departments and resources.
At this meeting, you won’t get to see the City’s Proposed budget, which is still in development. This year, the budget process is happening earlier, thanks to voters agreeing to an additional month of planning time for City Council. The proposed budget will be released by October 1st.
We're also seeing fewer Budget Town Hall Meetings. In previous years the Mayor has hosted a meeting in each council district. This year there will be just one in-person and one virtual meeting. The Mayor's release didn't include why this has changed, but we suspect low turnout at last year's meetings contributed to this decision.
💸 Brush Up on your Budget Basics
Who makes the budget? Where does the money come from? Where does it go? How can you get involved? Learn about all this and more in our Residents Guide to the City Budget.
Want to dive even deeper into the 2025 budget? Check out our last blog post on the Revenue Estimating Conference.
📢 Make your voice heard!
This is your money. You get to say what happens with it. There’s a number of ways you can get involved with the City’s Budget Process. The best way is whichever you’ll actually follow through on. They’re listed here in order of ease.
1. Take a Survey* - We've been conducting our own budget survey over the past decade and change, and this year we’ve teamed up with the Big Easy Budget Coalition. We want to hear from you! Responses inform our budget advocacy, which won over $13 Million for community priorities last year.
Take our survey here.
For the first time this year, residents can also weigh in on the budget online via the City's Budget page here. We don’t know how this survey informs the budget or the Town Halls.
2. Show Up at the Mayors Town Hall(s) - It’s important that the Mayor and the administration see how much the people care! If you’re able to show up in person, do! If online is more your speed, do that! Bring a neighbor.
3. Contact your councilperson about your priorities - City Council is ultimately responsible for approving the budget, and it is literally your council person’s job to represent you in the budget process. Reach out to your councilperson and their constituent relations staff person to tell them what you need.
4. Stay tuned for more opportunities to show up! Join our email list here.
*Why two surveys? We keep our own data for a few reasons:
The Mayor's survey is only available during budget season, and we collect responses all year round.
We're able to analyze the data more easily with our own survey, and compare results year-to-year.
Each Mayor's survey is framed around her main priorities, and the Cantrell Administration condenses public health and public safety into one category. We prefer to analyze those important issues separately.
Previous Update: July 2024
Mayor Cantrell has postponed the Budget Town Halls. The reschedule dates have not been announced.The Mayor's team cites the death of Bill Rouselle, political strategist, community champion, and CEO of Bright Moments, as the reason for rescheduling.
Mayor Cantrell referred to Mr. Rouselle as a “communications and community trailblazer who set standards and broke barriers for African Americans in the communications industry” in a statement this weekend.
Mr. Rouselle also served as a CBNO Board member from 2001-2008. He had a crucial role in our founding Blueprint for a Better New Orleans policy agenda, and in ensuring neighbors were represented in the many planning meetings after Hurricane Katrina. We offer our heartfelt thanks to Mr. Rouselle for his contributions to our organization and our City, and our condolences to his family and friends.
We will keep you informed about the status of the Budget Town Hall meeting when rescheduled.
