Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Ten Per Cent
Unless I'm missing something, the mayor proposes to spend at least 10% of next year's projected $405B budget on sanitation. The mayor's accepted bids totalling $26.8M for the city's new and improved garbage collection. The bids for the remaining contract vary between just under $6M and $19.5M and there's also the cost of dumping the trash, plus the cost of running the sanitation department -- probably $40-$50M altogether. In 2005 the sanitation department had a total budget of $35M when the contract with Waste Management was for $18M. It had a budget of $21M this year, of which $9M was the Waste Management contract (Google "New Orleans operating budget", you'll find a powerpoint presentation, if you're interested--no link to copy).
