Criminal justice departments prepare for N.O. budget process - New Orleans News, Breaking News, Sports & Weather - FOX 8 Live WVUE-TV Channel 8

Criminal justice departments prepare for N.O. budget process - New Orleans News, Breaking News, Sports & Weather - FOX 8 Live WVUE-TV Channel 8

"New Orleans -- With just under two months left for the Mayor and the council to decide how to spend nearly a half a billion of your tax dollars next year, there’s a lot of talk about the budget process.

“It should be somewhere I suspect in the range of $485 million. It’s about what it was last year,” says Councilwoman Stacy Head.

Head says she suspects every department would like to have more money, but she says there is only so much of it to go around. When it comes to the criminal justice system, Head says it’s about spending smart.

District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro says he plans to ask the city for slightly more money for his office. Even so, he’s been critical of the Criminal District Court judges over the past year about wasting resources, saying they need to work harder.

“The court system does not operate terribly efficient and if you talk to any group, they’ll say it’s the other one’s fault. But bottom line, it’s the DA’s office, it’s the Public Defender’s office and it’s the judges,” says Head.

The councilwoman says those three agencies need to get together and figure out how to move cases through the system more efficiently.

Last year, $200,000 was cut from Criminal District Court. This year, the court plans to ask for that money back, bringing its overall budget to somewhere around $3 million."