(The Center Square) − New Orleans’ Department of Sanitation told the City Council its 2026 budget proposal would force deep cuts to core services and slow response times citywide, pointing to an $18.8 million reduction from this year’s spending plan.
Budget documents show the department’s total general fund request would fall from $71.24 million adopted for 2025 to $52.45 million in 2026, a decrease driven largely by an $18.68 million drop in operating costs. Personal services would dip slightly, from $4.82 million to $4.71 million.
The department said the plan includes reductions to unclassified pay that they believe will damage morale and make it harder to retain staff.
A hiring freeze that has prevented backfilling essential laborer and equipment-operator jobs since July 2025 has already hurt productivity and responsiveness, they said.
The department also flagged Mardi Gras overtime as underfunded by roughly $274,000 and warned that the absence of overtime funding for field operations would delay routine cleanups, including litter and waste-tire removal, illegal dumping response, disaster cleanup, second-line and special-event sweeps, priority requests and public-health hazards.
Sanitation Director Matt Torri said the department tried to shield basic trash pickup, even as other programs face elimination.
“While we don’t advocate for these cuts, we did need to preserve solid waste collection services throughout the city, and in order to do so, this is where the cuts are being proposed to make, and we do hope that they can be mitigated,” Torri told council members.
“So these cuts would eliminate recycling services across the city, across all avenues,” Torri continued. “This includes citywide curbside recycling services for 165,000 households that currently receive once-a-week recycling service, VR curbside contractors, the weekly recycling drop-off, including four annual shred days and our annual household hazardous waste day, as well as the glass recycling that occurs there each week.”
To absorb the proposed $18.7 million in reductions, the department said it would also have to end recycling at city facilities; third-party support for illegal-dumping remediation; supplemental interstate sweeping and mowing; and faster post-parade cleanups.
Enhanced services in Area 5 – the French Quarter and Downtown Development District – would cease as well, including pressure washing, mechanical street sweeping and flushing, orphan-bag and organic-waste removal, and graffiti and sticker removal.
Department leaders warned that residents would see lower cleanliness, slower response times and a decline in neighborhood quality of life. They also cautioned that morale could suffer further, leading to more absenteeism and attrition – compounding the strain on day-to-day service delivery.
