We called this our "smart budget" because ingenuity went into its planning - ingenuity and common sense. The city has obligations to provide services which it meets each year. But raising taxes and pouring money into sinkholes will not solve our problems. Instead, we need to be thoughtful - about how money is spent, how our agencies are organized and how to find more money without raising taxes - that is smart management. And that would become our trademark.  

-Mayor Marc H. Morial

First Budget Address
October 25, 1994
City Council Chamber

Members of the City Council, business leaders and fellow New Orleanians, tonight I present to you our 1995 Operating Budget. It includes a five-year $200 million Capital Improvements Plan with cost savings and accountability measures, revenue reforms and prioritized spending.     This $431 million budget is a smart budget. It saves money. It proposes bold and innovative revenue options, and it holds government accountable for its performance and efficiency.     We will meet its obligations to all outside agencies, and the courts. However, the city cannot and will not write a blank check. City employees deserve a pay raise and the public deserves better service. The City Employee Merit Compact is fiscally and managerially sound, and it will be responsive to the public's demand for better city services.    Our cost savings and accountability measures include:     - Consolidation of the city's automobile fleet for complete maintenance and deployment.    - The transfer of the city's telephone system management from its present office to the Central Accounting Office computer division. This will allow the city to keep up with advancing technology, and to manage the billing, collection and utilization of the city's telephone system more efficiently.    - Improving the city's employee health care plan. The city will initiate preventative medicine and wellness programs and examine managed care alternatives.    - Development of a city risk management and safety plan to reduce the number of employee accidents and outside losses the city incurs.     - Implementation of a new fiscal accountability and detailed budget disclosure policy for all outside agencies, including judicial and parochial offices. This policy will require that detailed budgets, including expenditures and all sources of revenue, be disclosed to the CAO and the City Council.    - Development and implementation of a "Crescent City Quality Management" mandatory training curriculum for all city employees.    - Privatization of grass cutting services in certain areas of New Orleans will be evaluated to determine whether it can yield cost savings.    Our proposed revenue reforms will move the city forward by keeping pace with technology and complying with federal environmental mandates. We will aggressively collect all delinquent taxes in order to generate more revenue.      Our revenue reforms are expected to bring in $13.5 million to the city budget.     We will raise $3 million a year with the new Telecommunications Act, which standardizes how the franchise fee is charged to telecommunications providers. It will not jeopardize current franchise fee payments, and is estimated raise $3 million in additional revenue, which we will earmark for a 5 percent pay raise for city employees.    A $2 monthly Curbside Recycling Program, which is a state and federal mandate, will be started. If we do not begin an integrated solid waste plan by 1996, we risk sanctions by the federal government. We expect to receive $3.5 million in federal money for the curbside recycling program.     We will implement a comprehensive tax amnesty program for speedy collection of delinquent property and sales taxes, occupational licenses and sanitation fees. We also propose to sell delinquent ad valorem tax obligations for cash. This is an innovative idea. Jersey City, New Jersey, pioneered this approach with great success.      We will also evaluate the effectiveness of privatizing the collection of delinquent property tax obligations.    The mayor will create by executive order a revenue estimating conference to take effect early 1995. The conference membership will include the mayor, the chief administrative officer, the city director of finance, the chairman of the City Council's budget committee and a faculty member of a New Orleans college or university. This effort is designed to review revenue estimates by studying current economic conditions and applying them throughout the year to the present budget and future budgets.    Our prioritized spending includes $144 million for public safety, a significant increase for NORD, a 5-year $200 million public works initiative called "Rebuild New Orleans Now Phase II", and a 5 percent across the board pay raise for city employees.     The $144-million public safety allocation includes spending for fire, police and emergency services, which are essentially unchanged from last year.    The 1995 NOPD Budget will be leaner and more focused. Management of the Grounds Patrol Units will be reassigned to the Department of Property Management. The management of all police fleet vehicles will be consolidated under the Equipment Management Division to create more efficiency and accountability.    The NOPD allocation should also increase as a result of Federal Crime Bill funding and money from the Casino Support Services Contract. This funding means that 100 new police officers will patrol our streets, 60 new police cars will be provided, and extensive training will be available to police department personnel.    A new gaming division for the NOPD will be funded by the Casino Support Services Contract    The New Orleans Recreation Department's budget will increase from $4.2 million to $5.7 million in keeping with our commitment to the youth of New Orleans. It will increase the number of camps and pools, beef up security at recreation sites and expand the number of weeks camps are open.     The 1995 Capital Budget, called "Rebuild New Orleans Phase II", proposes $200 million in spending over five years to rebuild the city's crumbling infrastructure. Capital dollars will fund equipment purchases as well as repairs to streets, NORD playground facilities and public buildings. These improvements, along with capital programs presently underway at the Regional Transit Authority, New Orleans Aviation Board and other city boards and commissions, will produce $873.4 million in capital investment over the next five years.    A citizen task force headed by Jim Cain, former CEO of NOPSI, will look at ways to fund the five-year program and report back to the mayor and council prior to Jan. 1, 1995.    We will give city employees a five percent pay raise, provided they participate in quality management training. The "Crescent City Quality Management Training" program will be developed and implemented by a consortium of local universities and colleges in conjunction with our Division of Human Resources, the CAO and the Civil Service Commission.    The CCQM training requires all employees to attend classes and 80 percent of employees to complete the CCQM curriculum before the pay raise can go into effect July 1, 1995.     Now, according to the procedures laid out in the city charter, our City Council budget hearings will begin in ten days and continue through November. The City Council has until Dec. 1, 1994 to adopt or reject this budget.    Please help us in doing the right thing for our city and us. This budget is smart and is ground-breaking. I hope you'll join me in supporting it. Thank you.

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