NEW ORLEANS – Mayor Ray Nagin announced on Thursday several cuts to city services and a shift to a four-day work week at City Hall, allowing the administration to stay within the means of the budget the City Council approved earlier this month.
The mayor called it the worst budget crisis since the one immediately following Hurricane Katrina.
The cuts to the 2010 budget are deep and widespread, and once they're officially made, you're sure to notice them.
The mayor went through his implementation plan Thursday afternoon, explaining that this is the only option to deal with the budget version recently approved by the City Council.
The most drastic cut is likely a drop in city services. City buildings beginning next year will now be closed on Fridays. The facilities include City Hall, New Orleans Recreation Department facilities, health clinics and libraries.
Exceptions include the NOPD, NOFD, EMS, the courts and the Mahalia Jackson Theater. Other cuts include the elimination of the city's 311 help hotline, and Mardi Gras parade stands and garbage clean-up contracts. Security detail for council members is also being slashed, and repairs to city vehicles will only be done if they cost $750 or less. The mayors said that means a third of all city vehicles, including public safety cars, will be inoperable come June.
The city council issued a statement Friday saying while it realized that cuts need to be made, that they don't agree with many of Nagin's choices.
"The Council reiterates its position of December 3, 2009. We disagree with the Mayor's approach and ultimate budgetary cuts. These decisions are solely and definitively his. We had hoped he would make efficient cuts with his citizenry and employees foremost in mind; however it appears his actions do not reflect those priorities, which is regrettable.
To see a powerpoint presentation put together by the Mayor's Office concerning the budget cuts, click here.
The mayor was asked Thursday why he didn't veto the council's budget if he knew it would come to this.
"In my conversations with the council I didn't get any indication that there was any willingness to change anything, so a veto to me and a statement of unity I thought would have just put this community in a vicious cycle: veto and override and veto and override, which we did last year,” Nagin said. “That was not fun and I think citizens are tired.”
EMS services were also included in the cuts. The head of the agency said the council slashed the department by 40 percent. She said citizens might have to expect longer wait times when it comes to ambulance services.
