New Orleans’ government is running a $70 million deficit, thanks in large part to overtime pay connected to the Jan. 1 Bourbon Street attack and to the new security measures that followed it, a scenario that has caused officials to consider fee hikes, a hiring freeze and cuts to criminal justice agencies.
Police and firefighters’ overtime make up more than half the deficit and, and Chief Administrative Officer Gilbert Montaño said this year’s overruns more accurately reflect what is needed each year to prevent future attacks and maintain steep reductions in other violent crime.
“We want to budget correctly for them, and that’s why you see us having different cost-cutting measures to ensure they can maintain those hours as necessary,” Montano said in an interview…