Your $11.2 Million ‘gift’ to a New Orleans NGO

The single most common nonpartisan issue that equally upsets everyone is discovering that their government has been wasting tax dollars. We’ve been addressing this for some time now. Our recent article covered various cooperative endeavor agreements, Louisiana’s Missing $306 MILLION: Where Did It Go? Then, another recent article addressed some spending from the supplemental appropriations bill from the 2024 regular session, Change Louisiana? This could change everything!

We’re focusing on these bills because they show we can and should reduce state government spending. If we do that, we can reduce taxes, like ending John Bel-Edwards’ “temporary” .45¢ tax that never seems to go away. I shared a list of recipients of these taxpayer benefits in previous articles. However, we didn’t get into details. The name of the organization and the amount received were enough to upset most reasonable people.

Just for grins, here’s the list again. You can also view it full-screen by clicking this link to the same list.

New Orleans and Company

Now that the high-level information has sufficiently prepared you, it might be time to get your magnifying glass and look closer. Where do we begin? Logic dictates that we look at the single largest recipient on the list. The amount of money flowing to this NGO is so ridiculous that it’s more than the next seven NGOs combined!

Who are we talking about? New Orleans and Company is a non-profit 501(c)(6) “business league” (like a Chamber of Commerce). The most recent state expenditure was $11.2 million. Yes, that’s in a single year. Looking back about four years (since 2020), the total taxpayer outlay for this non-profit has been $87,284,372.97.

A quick peek beneath the surface reveals some things that should get you even more upset than before. First, according to New Orleans and Company’s latest Form 990 filed with the IRS, they have over $100 MILLION in assets. Why such a non-profit should need a government handout is a mystery to me. Another thing is about a dozen people on their payroll receive incredible compensation. The CEO is compensated almost double that of our President of the United States!

Compensation of some department heads

The following is the most recently available data from 2022. The CEO in this report is now retired and appears to have been replaced by Walter Leger, III.

Name	Title	Base Pay	Bonuses	Other	Retirement	Benefits	Total
J Stephen Perry	President/CEO	414,065	124,256	27,000	138,968	7,464	711,753
Mark Romig	Senior VP / CMO	239,168	77,250	27,000	13,254	14,565	371,237
Walter Leger, III	Executive VP / Gen Counsel	262,467	54,375	20,500	13,965	19,295	370,602
Stephanie Turner	Senior VP / Convention Sales	220,231	46,875	27,000	11,886	21,201	327,193
Kim Priez	Vice-President of Tourism	184,702	42,983	27,000	10,438	7,464	272,587
Kelly Schulz	Senior VP Communications PR	161,852	33,797	15,154	8,901	12,953	232,657
Tammie Boteler	VP Finance	142,669	30,958	18,765	7,819	13,965	214,176
Sallee Pavlovich	Dir. Corp. Trade Shows	143,499	27,415	27,000	8,555	7,464	213,933
Brian Walker	VP Information Systems	141,120	30,958	20,500	6,186	12,953	211,717
Jeremy Cooker	VP Marketing / Special P	133,345	28,698	14,409	7,584	19,295	203,331
Donna Glover	VP National Accounts / Tradeshows	114,869	23,460	27,000	7,095	13,965	186,389
Kevin Ferguson	VP External Affairs	118336	26250	7754	4036	15584	171,960
TOTAL		2,157,987	521,025	251,328	234,651	150,584	3,315,575

Another striking line item (numbered 15) on the first page is that salaries have increased significantly (24%) year over year. How’d you like a 24% pay raise in our Bidenflation economy? In 2021, their total salaries and benefits (for everyone, including underlings) were $8,888,957. For 2022, that number jumped over $2 million to $10,985,208.

More data on New Orleans and Company

Because they receive state money, the New Orleans and Company must also file an annual audit with the Louisiana Legislative Auditor. Those documents don’t generally reveal salaries. However, the agency head’s total compensation is typically listed in the report. Looking at the document filed with the Legislative Auditor, you’d think the agency head was working for free! His total compensation of $711,753 is listed as zero because of the odd rules related to reporting compensation in Louisiana. Effectively, an organization can shuffle money around in such a way as to make it appear that no public dollars were used for executive compensation. It’s similar to how Planned Parenthood used to pinky-promise that no tax dollars were used for murdering American children.

Thankfully, New Orleans and Company’s form 990 gives us insight into the incredible amount of money going to salaries. According to their own documents, you, dear taxpayer, paid enough this year ($11.2 million) to cover the total compensation for every one of their employees ($11 million). Their recent annual audit shows that year over year, New Orleans and Company’s assets grew $11 million, from $103.1 million to $114.9 million. Again, this is the same amount taxpayers donated to the organization. So, the question persists: why is Louisiana giving away valuable tax dollars to non-profits who clearly don’t need the money?

Whose district is this?

Our previous articles showed who is responsible for this frivolous spending. In keeping with that effort, our list of such expenditures for this year also includes the political affiliation of the legislators in whose districts the beneficiary is domiciled. The list is embedded in the article above. You can also view it full-screen by clicking this link to the same list.

New Orleans and Company is domiciled at 2020 St Charles Ave, New Orleans, LA 70130. That address fell into districts represented by Senator Karen Carter Peterson (District 5) and House Rep Royce Duplessis (District 93). When Karen Carter Peterson resigned from the Senate (pending her arrest and sentencing for funny dealings), Royce Duplessis ran for and won her vacated seat. Duplesses was similarly replaced in the House by Alonxo Knox. Although the legislative districts were redrawn in 2021, the new lines did not change the district numbers for New Orleans and Company. By the way, all these elected representatives hail from the Democratic Party.

Now, let us return to a variation of the previous question. Why is a super-majority Republican legislature gifting $11.2 million to a Leftist Democratic Party stronghold in New Orleans? I ask this question because the previous legislature was notorious for cutting (or not approving) funding for anything in conservative districts, including roads and bridge maintenance, so they could instead authorize funds in liberal Democrat districts. Last term, that was in repayment to Democrats who voted for the fraud squad Speaker of the House, Clay Schexnayder. However, this time around, Democrat votes were not required to elect a speaker. So, why are we still funding Democrat priorities instead of cutting taxes?

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