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Rae Ryan, center, who drove to New Orleans from Mississippi to pick up her wedding dress and shop for makeup at Lakeside Shopping Center in Metairie. Ryan was among the first to return to the mall which reopened on Tuesday, May 19, 2020. Lancóme sales person Maritza Cabrera keeps a distance as she assists Ryan.
STAFF PHOTO BY CHRIS GRANGER
While neighboring New Orleans furloughs city workers and slashes departmental budgets due to its ravaged tourism economy, the Jefferson Parish Council on Wednesday voted to increase its annual spending plan for 2021 by 2.5 percent and give merit-based pay raises as high as 5% to eligible employees.
Jefferson s economy, more diverse than New Orleans , is anchored by retail revenue, a funding stream that has recovered in recent months and has some parish officials cautiously optimistic about the coming year. But in her first budget as parish president, Cynthia Lee Sheng said her administration projects a 5% percent drop in sales tax revenue next year compared to 2019, due to coronavirus pandemic s effect on the economy. That comes even as a task force of council members offered its own projection that sales taxes might be incrementally up by the end of this year.
Promising news of a vaccine has councilmembers hopeful parades will be able to roll, even if later than usual.
“May is the target, because if the vaccines start rolling out this month, then that gives us, really, a full six months before that Memorial Day Weekend,” said Councilwoman Jennifer Van Vrancken.
Parish President Cynthia Lee Sheng said she also wants to see parades happen if possible, but she is concerned that could conflict with vaccine distributions.
“For us to have a good Mardi Gras, the vaccinations have to come first,” she said.
Business owners like Melvin Grodsky with Tuxedoes to Geaux pleaded for something to happen.