Gov. Jeff Landry is urging lawmakers to reject the City of New Orleans’ request for a $125 million loan from the state.
The city’s deepening financial crisis has raised the possibility that officials may go unpaid. Last week, Chief Administrative Officer Joe Threat alerted city leaders that the cash flow problem could prevent payroll from being met for the rest of the year. In turn, city council unanimously passed a resolution to apply for a $125 million state bond – a temporary solution.
In a post to X Tuesday morning though, Landry said “It’s imperative that the [city] address its financial matter promptly. I urge [Louisiana House Republican Legislative Delegation] and [Louisiana Senate Republicans] to deny the city’s request to accumulate debt o the backs of its citizens.”
Landry says he and the legislature have worked “diligently” to establish financial stability for the state. Landry is also calling for an emergency meeting of the Fiscal Review Committee and if necessary, the appointment of a fiscal administrator. Attorney General Liz Murrill confirmed the meeting will take place at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Murrill released a statement last week, saying her office has authority to step into a municipality’s finances if they’re unable to manage their own affairs.
“We have some authority to kind of impose a fiscal administration on municipalities that can’t manage their financial affairs,” Murrill said.
WWL Louisiana has not confirmed whether or not she is considering taking the action.
Should the bond request be denied, it’s unclear how the city will be able to make payroll.
You know how it’s totally normal for a governor to openly want so badly to see the largest city in his state fail? Like out of spite?
And then he can swoop in and take over like that wasn’t the fucking plan all along?
It sounds like the city wants a bailout instead of being financially responsible. Their reaction was to go asking for money instead of tightening their belt.
This kind of sensible thinking will get you banned!
GOP has no problems with bailouts for Argentina, Intel, Israel, plus tens of billions in tax cuts for all the Epstein Ballroom donors. Just a bunch of hypocrites.
I agree but that’s not the situation here.
Argentina has absolutely been completely fiscally irresponsible and its unlikely that loan will get repaid given banks are balking at matching state funds.
Imo the argentina situation is worse because New Orleans has been pressured into a situation by state laws and the governer wants to control it. The feds also promised the city funds but haven’t paid.
On the other side, the US could end up having to go to war with Argentina to recoup its loans though I suspect Trump will just waive repayment and burden the dollar with more inflation.
We should be leery of sending money to other countries when we are barely afloat. Argentina doesn’t deserve a penny from us.
The federal government has cancelled and rescinded millions in grants to the city since January. They’ve been waiting on $120M from FEMA that was just a renewal of an existing contract. They submitted the form in August, but it was just sitting waiting to be signed when the government shut down.
Oddly, the day before the shutdown, Florida received $608M from FEMA for a new application to be reimbursed for Alligator Alcatraz.
Regardless of that obvious bullshit, it makes no sense why you would want the largest city in your state to completely collapse rather than just letting them take a loan. It’s not even his call to make, he’s just publicly pressuring the people that do make that call (in the state he controls) to refuse the loan.
It just so happens that this is occurring after a year of inserting himself into every aspect of the city’s business. Now he and his AG are going to try and take control just in time for the national guard to arrive. On top of his state police force he established a year ago, and who had allegedly brought crime to an all time low before suddenly Trump needed to have federal takeovers in every democratic city and crime was out of control again.
Tightening their belt? Seriously?
Loss of $120M in expected FEMA funding threatens city’s ability to pay bills, officials say
USDA cancels grant meant to expand composting in New Orleans
A $61 million federal grant for New Orleans East was cut in the Big Beautiful Bill
Thanks for the feedback and sources. I don’t want the city to be shut down but jumping right to a loan isn’t a good look. There’s obviously lots of corruption in New Orleans and I suspect that a lot of the money in the loan will vanish. That said, certain groups will suffer the most. I’m hoping both that they get the money and that they don’t squander it.
There’s no more corruption in New Orleans than in the rest of Louisiana; fascist right-wing politicians are themselves corrupt for denying funding to liberal cities, just as Trump is doing by weaponizing FEMA.
I do think that there is more corruption in New Orleans just by the size and more opportunities. I completely agree with the second part of your statement. The Republican party is more corrupt than New Orleans by a long shot.