NEW ORLEANS – The City of New Orleans today announced a comprehensive plan to reset the city’s sanitation fee for the first time since 2011 while implementing major reforms.
The proposal follows a comprehensive review by the Louisiana Legislative Auditor (LLA), requested by Mayor Helena Moreno, of sanitation costs and longstanding discrepancies between the City’s service location records and Sewerage and Water Board billing records. The review found that the current fee is insufficient to cover the cost of service and identified thousands of duplicate, retired, vacant, potentially ineligible or otherwise questionable service locations.
In 2026, the City is projected to spend approximately $62.5 million on sanitation services while collecting approximately $37.7 million in sanitation fees, creating an estimated $24.7 million funding gap. Since 2023, sanitation costs have exceeded collections by nearly $70 million.
Under the proposed structure, residential customers currently billed for sanitation service will see an $8.25 monthly increase. The increase will not fully close the funding gap, but the Administration and LLA agreed that the fairest approach is to apply the new fee only to addresses already in the City’s billing system while the remaining service locations are verified. This approach aims to avoid placing the cost of potentially inaccurate service records on residents while the City completes its reconciliation.
The LLA identified 12,915 addresses on the City’s service list that are duplicate, retired or potentially improperly included. Those addresses have been sent to contractors for verification and, where appropriate, removal from the service list.
The updated sanitation fee will support curbside solid waste collection and disposal, recycling and a new City Sanitation Strike Team to respond to illegal dumping on a vastly expedited basis. The proposed ordinance also strengthens litter-abatement enforcement, gives residents the continued option to request a free second trash cart, and establishes annual inflation adjustments so future fees better track the cost of sanitation services.
The City expects to complete its current reconciliation efforts and establish permanent new processes by March 2027, creating a more accurate, accountable and financially sustainable sanitation system.
“Fairness has been our priority throughout this process,” said Mayor Helena Moreno. “We know every dollar matters to New Orleans families, so we worked carefully with the Legislative Auditor to arrive at a responsible adjustment while we verify our service and billing records. Just as important as the fee itself is what we are putting in place moving forward — a much stronger process to routinely reconcile these records, improve accountability and make sure our sanitation system remains accurate and financially sustainable for years to come.”