Bureau of Governmental Research

In The Price of Civilization: Addressing Infrastructure Needs in New Orleans, BGR provides information on New Orleans’ core infrastructure needs and assesses the community’s capacity to fund those needs.

In Forgotten Promises: The Lost Connection Between the Homestead Exemption and the Revenue Sharing Fund (June 2010), BGR examines the decline of a state mechanism to cover the costs of the exemption.

In this letter to the members of the Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee of the State Legislature, BGR opposes any dilution of the state’s open meetings laws. The letter comes in response to a push to close certain meetings of public bodies.

In Managing Innovation: Models for Governing the System of Public Schools in New Orleans (May 2010), BGR and Tulane University’s Cowen Institute present five potential models for governing public schools in New Orleans and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each.

In A Need for Clarity: The Revised New Orleans 2030 Draft Plan (April 2010), BGR continues its work to improve the draft master plan. While the report recognizes limited improvements from the previous draft, it finds that the revised draft does not live up to its mission in key areas. The report provides specific recommendations for improving the document.

Contracting with Confidence: Professional Services Contracting Reform in New Orleans (March 2010) presents a new model to improve contract administration and restore faith in the contracting process.

With the primary on the way, BGR submitted questions to all mayoral candidates on topics in four areas: the city’s budget, city services, infrastructure and blight. Four candidates – Rob Couhig, John Georges, Mitch Landrieu and James Perry – responded. BGR is presenting the Q&A to the public in a web-only, four-part series, Questions for a New Mayor.

Press Release: BGR Begins Four-Part Q&A Series with 2010 Mayoral Candidates

As the campaign for the city’s soon-to-be consolidated assessor’s office begins, BGR releases In All Fairness: Building a Model Assessment System in New Orleans. The report explains what the new citywide assessor must do to create a fair, efficient and transparent assessment system in Orleans Parish.

In this report, BGR examines the New Orleans draft master plan’s proposal for citizen participation.