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New Orleans mayor Latoya Cantrell has been spending tax payers’ dollars on upgrade travel and doesn’t plan on paying it back. She has spent thousands of tax dollars for her luxurious travel accommodations, WVUE reported. Recent trips to France and Switzerland cost almost $30,000.

On Sept. 8, she told reporters she spent tax money on business and first class flight arrangements while she was doing her job; therefore, it won’t be reimbursed.

“All expenses incurred doing business on behalf of the city of New Orleans will not be reimbursed to the city of New Orleans,” Cantrell said at the reopening of the Nix Library according to WVUE. “One thing is clear: I do my job, and I will continue to do it with distinction and integrity every step of the way.”

Cantrell said her lavish trips are about her safety as a Black woman and not luxury.

“My travel accommodations are a matter of safety, not of luxury. As all women know, our health and safety are often disregarded and we are left to navigate alone,” she said in August. “As the mother of a young child whom I live for, I am going to protect myself by any reasonable means in order to ensure I am there to see her grow into the strong woman I am raising her to be. Anyone who wants to question how I protect myself just doesn’t understand the world Black women walk in.”

By booking these expensive trips, Latoya Cantrell may be breaking rules. City policy states that government officials are required to book the lowest airfare to travel.

Her last trip was to France where she went to sign an agreement with a small city on the Mediterranean Sea. The four-day trip cost $45,000, NOLA reported. The airfare alone was $18,000.

Taxpayers are required to cough up an extra $29,000 for Cantrell’s travel accommodations. Her flights have cost over $38,200.

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