Audit: New Orleans Spends More Than It Collects, Doesn't Keep Track of Federal Grant Money

Sound familiar?

Not only did the City of New Orleans spend $9.3 million more in 2012 than it collected that year, but it also had major holes in the way it tracked $240 million in federal grants, according to a series of annual independent auditsreleased Monday. 

Should those trends continue, the cash-strapped city could find itself in even more dire financial straits as Mayor Mitch Landrieu's administration faces the need to pay for major court-ordered reforms to the criminal justice system as well as a bevy of ambitious capital projects.