Budget day

They have to present something today but they clearly aren't prepared.

The 2015 operating budget that Mayor Mitch Landrieu presents to the City Council on Wednesday will in some ways be no more than a first draft.

That’s because the mayor won’t know until early next year whether voters will approve a property tax hike for additional police and fire coverage. Also, Landrieu’s administration is still in the middle of courtroom negotiations over how much he will have to pay the city’s firefighters for their pension fund, the clerk of Criminal District Court for his staff and Sheriff Marlin Gusman for reforms at Orleans Parish Prison.

So while there is always an element of guesswork in a budget proposal, this year’s spending plan will come with an unusually large grain of salt.

So one imagines there will be a sales pitch to voters about the millage proposal embedded in this.  Anyway they kick off at 11.