We love our seniors, though

"We love our seniors and we can do so much more for them," says LaToya Cantrell in these Facebook ads right before she asks you to vote against a millage funding their services. The tax failed yesterday thanks, in part, to ads like that one paid for by Cantrell's PAC, Action New Orleans. The PAC spent over $20,000 on this one ballot issue garnering the attention of *checks notes* 6.7% of the electorate.  Nonetheless, the result will be counted as a sweeping victory for the mayor and the political machine she is building. The electoral "win" just ahead of the legislative session should be good for the mayor's clout as she continues to pursue her grand bargain with the heads of local tourism agencies. It will also be described as a "win" for the mayor over a defiant City Council who put this proposal on the ballot in spite of her objections.

The mayor invested so much in denying funding to the Council on Aging and other organizations who provide essential services to the seniors she loves because she says... well because BGR tells her to say... those organizations are not sufficiently "accountable" to the public. They may have a point in the abstract. But it rings hollow when, in next month's election, the mayor is supporting dedicated money for the private clubs who operate Audubon, City Park and NORD as insufficiently "accountable" fiefdoms themselves. Also, we could point out (and we have) that the deal she is hammering out with the tourism agencies preserves their unaccountable access to dedicated public funds. What explains Cantrell's selective application of this "accountability" line of criticism?

My best guess is this is basically about patronage. LaToya and BGR support the money that goes to their friends and supporters while opposing money City Council members might distribute to non-profits and church groups with different loyalties and interests.

Looking through the contributors to Action New Orleans, we find several names tied to the agencies and interests Cantrell is moving to protect. There are current and former Audubon board members, people with ties to the Superdome Commission and the Convention Center as well as tourism and real estate connections. Joe Jaeger, whose hotel project is at the center of the supposed "clash" between Cantrell and the Convention Center, contributed $2,500. Prominent Airbnb lobbyist Eric Bay gave $250.  A plan to normalize short term rentals as a permanent revenue source is also said to be part of the pending deal.

We'll wait to see how all that plays out.  News on the deal is expected this week.  Hopefully when our media commentators write their predictably glowing praise of the "compromise" ending, they'll mention somewhere that everyone involved in the deal was on the same side all along.  In the meantime, Orleans Parish seniors who rely on Meals On Wheels and similar programs will have to wait a bit longer for the mayor to decide whether or not anyone is going to feed them.  She does love them, though.