NOLA blew through the $125 million they borrowed from the state and may want more but...

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In a weekly meeting Wednesday with the Legislative Auditor's Office, the New Orleans City Council was advised that after this round of payroll funds is released, only about $6 million will remain from the loan the state approved last year. And after next week, that $6 million will likely be depleted, however, the general fund will then kick in for payroll funds, they said.

“I anticipate next week you’ll be out. There’s probably going to be an uptick in overtime due to some Mardi Gras so if there is remaining funds it’ll be very little," said Christopher Province with the Legislative Auditor's office. "After that, the general fund will start to pay for payroll and they’ve already started paying for the fringe side of things so they’ll kind of just absorb this piece here."

While they said there is enough in the general fund, it's important for the city to stay on the right financial path.

"Do we have enough in the general fund to continue paying people?” Council Budget Chair Lesli Harris asked.

“You do, we have to continue to kind of row the boat in the right direction continually," Province said.

Now that the state-approved loan is nearing its end, questions have arisen about whether the council will be required to continue meeting with the Legislative Auditor’s Office—a condition of last year’s state bond commission approval. The Legislative Auditor’s Office said the future of the meetings would be up to the bond commission, but that they would be open to continuing to assist the city with its finances. They added that it would again be up to the bond commission if the city requests approval for another loan, which remains a possibility.

Council President JP Morrell said that if they ask for another loan, he would be against a condition that requires weekly meetings with the Legislative Auditor.

“I think from that bond commission meeting this was an extenuating circumstance because we were transitioning between administrations, and there was a concern based on the run up and the overages that we needed this level of monitoring," Morrell said. "I don’t anticipate this will be a condition of the next [loan]. ... I would certainly argue that, I know from my perspective and the mayor’s perspective we would argue against having weekly meetings to do this but that largely depends on how we manage our finances from the end of this monitoring period through the request for the ran I anticipate."

It’s unclear when the city will decide whether it needs another loan approved by the state.

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