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NEW ORLEANS – New Orleans is lifting furloughs for emergency workers, even with the financial strain caused by the pandemic.

Police, fire, ems, the health department and juvenile justice employees will no longer be forced to take an unpaid day off every two weeks.

Rescinding furloughs for a portion of city employees is not cheap. The decision will cost about $16 million for more than two thousand city employees.

Mayor LaToya Cantrell said, “Everything we do is geared towards meeting the current needs related to COVID-19 and also ensuring that the City of New Orleans continues to make progress inspite of the challenges that we face.”

One of the challenges is New Orleans remains cash strapped.

To pay for reinstating employees, the administration is borrowing the money from a $50 million line of credit. The city is hopeful federal stimulus money will ease the burden and tourism will pick up as more people are vaccinated.

“Our goal through our recovery plan is to better diversify our economy so we can have a more stable government operation and not have such an influx of ups and downs relative to our financial picture,” said Chief Administrative Officer Gilbert Montano.

The Cantrell administration will look at the numbers monthly and they warn layoffs could be necessary if things do not improve.

“Once again, it’s scenario based, it’s projection based, but we as a team feel confident that this is the right move and this is a positive movement for the city of New Orleans,” Montano said.