The New Orleans City Council has taken the first steps towards zeroing out Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s travel and entertainment budget after her administration claimed city finances are so dire it must impose a new period of austerity and budget cuts,

NOLA Public Schools leaders say Mayor LaToya Cantrell is withholding $20 million dollars to fill a hole in the schools' budget.

City Council members are expected to tighten the city's purse strings Tuesday after Mayor LaToya Cantrell backed out on a $20 million funding deal with the Orleans Parish School Board. Why it matters: Things are about to be tit-for-tat in the long-running spat between Cantrell and the council.

At packed city council meeting on Tuesday, city council members grilled city officials over Mayor LaToya Cantrell's decision to back out of a settlement agreement with the school board that would have included $90 million in funding over the next decade and an agreement that the city would stop collecting a 2% fee.

She described the money owed as “not a gift or consolation prize.” Orleans Parish School Board finance chair Olin Parker told reporters in a news conference earlier in Februar

Tuesday’s meeting comes after the Orleans Parish School Board filed a motion in Civil District Court last week, seeking to enforce a $20 million settlement.

After Mayor Cantrell backed out of a multimillion settlement deal that would put an end to an Orleans Parish School Board lawsuit over tax collection, the School Board filed a motion in court to force the mayor to uphold the city's end of the agreement.

Mayor LaToya Cantrell faces backlash from the City Council after pulling out a $20 million settlement with NOLA Public Schools, an agreement her administration helped negotiate in November last year.