Mardi Gras might be smaller next year

PENSACOLA, Fla. - Thousands of people look forward to Pensacola's Mardi Gras parades. They are a huge part of the city's culture. Now budget constraints could put Pensacola's parade floats at stake because the city simply doesn't have the money.

Mayor Mike Wiggins said, "It's around $80,000 to do it all, and $80,000 is a lot of money to the city of Pensacola right now."

The reason it's so costly for the city is because they have to pay police officers for crowd control and security and they have to pay city employees to put up barricades.

To cover that cost, the city has now put together a committee that's looking for alternative funding for the parades because they can't do it all.

Danny Zimmern is the President of the Pensacola Mardi Gras association. He says if the bill gets dumped on the parading societies, some of them might be forced to shut down. He said, "I don't know if Mardi Gras would go away but I know several would, several that would mean a lot to community."

The Mayor says, if it comes to that, the city council will do whatever it takes to keep the floats above water. Mayor Wiggins said, "Not having the parades is not an option, got to figure out a way to do it, get the experts, those who run parades. I'm hoping we can figure out a creative out of the box solution when we all get together."