New Orleans Budget Deficit: What It Means for Our Health

Happy Wednesday, beloved.

Before we talk numbers, I want to talk about the knot in your stomach. You know the one. It shows up when you hear the words “budget deficit” on the evening news and wonder what it means for your mama’s bus route, your nephew’s rec league, or your cousin who works for the city. That feeling is real. It lives in the body, and it deserves our attention.

So this week, let’s sit with the New Orleans budget deficit together. Not as accountants. As a community that has always taken care of its own.

A City Budget Is a Health Document

We rarely think of it this way. Still, every line in that spending plan touches how we live, how we move and how well we rest at night.

On Tuesday, Sept. 22, Mayor Helena Moreno presented her first budget as mayor. She called it a “tough” plan, and she was being honest. With the one-time money that patched this year’s holes now gone, the city faces a gap of more than $100 million for 2027.

Chief Administrative Officer Joe Giarrusso laid out the hard math. Of the $763 million the city expects in general fund revenue, about $576 million is already spoken for by public safety, pensions, health care costs, debt and outside agencies. That leaves roughly $187 million for everything else. Everything else is where a lot of our daily life happens.

Where the Cuts Land Closest to Home

The cut that caught my heart first was the Department of Health. It would lose $9.9 million, close to a third of its general fund budget, according to Verite News.

Much of that savings would come from possibly closing the city’s low-barrier homeless shelter at the old VA hospital on Gravier Street. It has operated since 2018. Councilmember Lesli Harris warned that about 200 people could end up on the streets if it closes. Giarrusso has said he is open to finding another way to fund it. I pray he does.

Beloved, some of those 200 people are our people. They are somebody’s uncle, somebody’s daughter, somebody who used to sit two pews over. When the most vulnerable among us lose a safe bed, their health suffers first. Then the strain spreads to emergency rooms, to neighborhoods and to the rest of us.

Public Works would also lose almost half of its general fund budget. That may sound far from wellness. Yet streets and drainage decide whether our elders can walk safely to the corner store, and whether a heavy rain turns into a flooded kitchen and a mold problem.

Then there are the jobs. The plan eliminates 152 full-time positions, about 3% of the city workforce. Many city employees live in our neighborhoods and anchor our households. A lost paycheck is a health event for a whole family.

The Good News We Should Claim

I refuse to leave you with only the hard parts, because this plan has some light in it too.

First, the one-day-per-pay-period furloughs would end. City workers have been stretching thinner checks all year. Getting full pay back means a little more breathing room at the grocery store and the pharmacy counter.

Second, our children’s recreation stays mostly protected. The New Orleans Recreation Development Commission faces a cut of only about $96,000, roughly half of one percent of its budget. Residents asked for that at the town halls, and it looks like somebody listened.

Reggie Ford from the Lower 9th Ward said it plainly at one of those meetings. Investing in kids builds their self-esteem and keeps them on a better path. I would add one more thing. A child who can run, swim and play after school is a child building a healthier heart for life.

The mayor and Giarrusso have also said they will each take a 10% pay cut. Leaders sharing the sacrifice matters. People heal better when they believe the burden is being carried fairly.

Your Pocketbook Is Part of Your Pulse

Here is where I want you to pay close attention. The budget as written does not raise property taxes. That could change.

City leaders floated rolling forward eligible property tax millages to raise more money. Estimates presented this week ranged from about $20 million to $26 million a year, depending on the outlet reporting it. The city is also weighing higher short-term rental and permit fees, plus asking large tax-exempt institutions to share costs.

District E Councilmember Jason Hughes spoke up for New Orleans East. He noted that an extra $70, $100 or $200 a year might look small on paper, but “to the residents that I represent, it is.” He is right. In a city where the median household income sits near $56,600, every added bill has weight.

That weight lands in our bodies. The American Psychological Association has found through years of its Stress in America surveys that money ranks at or near the top of what keeps people up at night. Its research also shows people under financial strain often put off doctor visits they need. We have seen that pattern in our own families for generations. Mama skips the checkup so the light bill gets paid.

If this season already has you stretched, revisit our guide to protecting your health from political stress. Those tools still apply.

What We Can Do This Week

Worry without action just sits in the chest. So let’s move it.

Show up, or send your words. The City Council now holds about a month of budget hearings, with each department presenting. The final budget has to pass by Dec. 1, and leaders say they want it done sooner. Check the City Council meetings page for the schedule and public comment options. Tell them what health means to you: the shelter, mental health services, safe streets, youth programs.

Check on your city-worker neighbors. If someone you love is in one of those 152 positions, call them. Bring a plate. Help them look at options before the paycheck stops. Isolation makes hard news harder.

Keep your own appointments. Do not let budget worry push your mammogram or your blood pressure check to “later.” Community health centers across the city offer sliding-scale fees. Your health is not the line item to cut.

Use what is still ours. NORD’s programs are protected for now. Walk the track at your neighborhood rec center. Sign the kids up. A resource we use is a resource we can defend.

Nellie Catzen of the Committee for a Better New Orleans told reporters that residents consistently name housing, youth services, mental health and good jobs as their top priorities. She also said the city has a trust gap to close. We have watched that gap grow with the police overtime stories and the questions around the Sewerage and Water Board. Trust is a wellness issue too. A community that does not trust its government carries extra stress every single day.

We Have Carried Harder Things

Beloved, I will not pretend this budget is easy. It is not. Some good people will lose work. Some services will shrink. The shelter decision could hurt the very people who have the least.

But I have lived in this city long enough to know who we are. We rebuilt after the water. We fed each other when the stores were closed. We turned second lines into therapy long before anybody wrote a wellness column about it.

A tight budget can shrink a department. It cannot shrink a people who decide to look out for one another. So breathe deep, drink your water, make your call to the council, and check on somebody today.

Take care of yourself. Take care of each other. I’ll see you next Wednesday.

Denise Tureaud

Health & Wellness Columnist — Black Source Media Denise Tureaud Health Writer • Wellness Advocate • New Orleans Community Voice • Wednesday Columnist Denise Tureaud is Black Source Media’s Wednesday health and wellness columnist, writing for and about the Black women, men, and families of New Orleans with the directness and specificity that community deserves. She does not traffic in generic wellness advice. She writes about the real conditions — financial stress, insurance discrimination, systemic health disparities — that shape Black health outcomes in Louisiana and across America. Her Wednesday series covers the intersection of personal health and systemic reality. She translates peer-reviewed research into actionable, plain-language guidance for readers who have been underserved by both the healthcare system and the health media that claims to speak for them. Her work on financial stress and cardiovascular disease brought new NIH-backed research directly to Black Source Media readers months before it reached mainstream health publications. Tureaud writes with the voice of a New Orleans Black woman who has seen too many people she loves suffer from conditions that were preventable — and who believes that information, delivered honestly and directly, is one of the most powerful health interventions available. Selected Articles by Denise Tureaud Your Bills Are Breaking Your Heart. Literally. Black Men Health Disparities: Why We Die Younger and What We Can Do About It (Strong Enough to Live Series) View All Articles by Denise Tureaud at Black Source Media

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