New Orleans council votes to send $10 million to city schools, again defying mayor
Defying New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell, the New Orleans City Council voted on Thursday to dedicate $10 million to New Orleans public schools — partly fulfilling the terms of a legal settlement that Cantrell rejected. The council also voted to end the city’s longtime practice of charging fees for collecting property and sales taxes on behalf of other local governmental entities, the source of the legal dispute with the Orleans Parish School Board.
“The city cannot be in the business of forever collecting taxes for free, but those fees need to be negotiated,” said City Council President JP Morrell, who authored the fee ordinance.
The $10 million helps fulfill a proposed legal settlement with the school board, which called for the city to pay the NOLA Public Schools District $20 million this school year and an additional $70 million over the following 10 years. The funds would be used to help close an estimated $50 million budget shortfall local schools faced this year as the result of an accounting error. In exchange, the school board agreed to drop a long-running lawsuit over the allegedly improper fees.
The council announced the deal in November, but Cantrell backed out of it earlier this year, citing city budget pressures.
Because the administration has already been ordered to pay out $10 million to the public schools — an order it is seeking to reverse — the additional $10 million approved Thursday would satisfy the money the council agreed to for this year. Speaking at the meeting, Councilmember Joe Giarrusso said the council will work to honor the additional terms of the settlement: $70 million to educational programming over the next ten years, including mental and behavioral health services as well as programs that provide career counseling and vocational training.
“Those organizations that rely on the money need to know that it is there so they can do their planning and act accordingly,” Giarrusso said.
The second ordinance passed on Thursday, eliminating fees on taxes the city collects for other agencies, would address the source of the longtime legal dispute between the city and the school board. A lawsuit the school board filed against the city in 2019 is still active in Orleans Parish Civil District Court. The school system has estimated it has lost more than $130 million in tax revenue over the years the fees have been in place. In 2020, a state appeals court ruled such fees were illegal, but the Cantrell administration has continued to defend them as fair payment for its tax collection work.
On Thursday, Morrell said he wasn’t against such fees, but criticized the way the city collected them. The city should have formal agreements with the other entities — which include the school board, the Sewerage & Water Board and the city’s flood protection authority, among others — in order to collect the fees, Morrell said.
“They need to be in (cooperative endeavor agreements),” he said. “They need to be public. And they need to be commensurate with the activity and work done.”
Both ordinances come on the heels of a judge’s recent decision that a $90 million settlement announced last fall was not finalized – and the city was not obligated to fulfill most of its terms except for $10 million appropriated during the annual budgeting process.
NOLA Public Schools Superintendent Fateama Fulmore and Orleans Parish School Board member Olin Parker both spoke in favor of the ordinances and thanked councilmembers for their advocacy and collaboration. Multiple local school leaders also spoke in favor of the ordinances at the meeting.
“This is a critical step to ensure that every dollar intended for students actually reaches them,” said Sabrina Pence, CEO of FirstLine Schools in New Orleans. FirstLine serves nearly 3,000 students in the city.
Some school leaders also spoke about how budgetary challenges were already impacting their schools as a result of the shortfall, leading to layoffs and loss of services for students.
“Because of all of the tax collection challenges, we’re making cuts for next year of about 31 positions across our schools, and those are some of the roles that are helping students recover and succeed,” Pence said.
Cantrell and the council have been at loggerheads since Cantrell announced that she would not honor the deal in January. In response, the council has passed ordinances banning city employees, including the mayor, from spending money on non-essential travel and booze, in an attempt to call Cantrell’s bluff.
With Thursday’s vote, the council defied the mayor’s refusal to honor the settlement. But councilmembers did so with an expectation that the mayor might push back against their efforts again.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if this is vetoed by this weekend,” Morrell told Verite News.
Cantrell has the option of vetoing the ordinance, but it’s likely the move wouldn’t accomplish anything. Six councilmembers voted in favor of the ordinance to end the collection fee. (Councilmember Freddie King was absent for the vote.) And all seven councilmembers voted in favor of dedicating an additional $10 million to the district. It only takes five votes to override a mayoral veto.
Cantrell’s office did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday. But on Wednesday night, the city released a brief statement that did not directly address the ordinances.
“The City does not control the school system’s governance or budget, but remains committed to being strong and informed partners, while supporting students and families with real solutions rooted in respect and collaboration,” a representative for the Mayor’s Office said in the statement.
___
This story was originally published by Verite News and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.