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.

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.

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.

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.