N.O./ wonder where the Levee money went?

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kennybs plbg

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CNSNews.com
In December of 1995, the Orleans Levee Board, the local government entity that oversees the levees and floodgates designed to protect New Orleans and the surrounding areas from rising waters, bragged in a supplement to the Times-Picayune newspaper about federal money received to protect the region from hurricanes.

"In the past four years, the Orleans Levee Board has built up its arsenal. The additional defenses are so critical that Levee Commissioners marched into Congress and brought back almost $60 million to help pay for protection," the pamphlet declared. "The most ambitious flood-fighting plan in generations was drafted. An unprecedented $140 million building campaign launched 41 projects."
The levee board promised Times-Picayune readers that the "few manageable gaps" in the walls protecting the city from Mother Nature's waters "will be sealed within four years (1999) completing our circle of protection."

But less than a year later, that same levee board was denied the authority to refinance its debts. Legislative Auditor Dan Kyle "repeatedly faulted the Levee Board for the way it awards contracts, spends money and ignores public bid laws," according to the Times-Picayune. The newspaper quoted Kyle as saying that the board was near bankruptcy and should not be allowed to refinance any bonds, or issue new ones, until it submitted an acceptable plan to achieve solvency.
Blocked from financing the local portion of the flood fighting efforts, the levee board was unable to spend the federal matching funds that had been designated for the project.

By 1998, Louisiana's state government had a $2 billion construction budget, but less than one tenth of one percent of that -- $1.98 million -- was dedicated to levee improvements in the New Orleans area. State appropriators were able to find $22 million that year to renovate a new home for the Louisiana Supreme Court and $35 million for one phase of an expansion to the New Orleans convention center.

The following year, the state legislature did appropriate $49.5 million for levee improvements, but the proposed spending had to be allocated by the State Bond Commission before the projects could receive financing. The commission placed the levee improvements in the "Priority 5" category, among the projects least likely to receive full or immediate funding.

"The problem is money is real tight in Baton Rouge right now," state Sen. Francis Heitmeier (D-Algiers) told the Times-Picayune. "We have to do with what we can get."

Louisiana Commissioner of Administration Mark Drennen told local officials that, if they reduced their requests for state funding in other, less critical areas, they would have a better chance of getting the requested funds for levee improvements. The newspaper reported that in 2000 and 2001, "the Bond Commission has approved or pledged millions of dollars for projects in Jefferson Parish, including construction of the Tournament Players Club golf course near Westwego, the relocation of Hickory Avenue in Jefferson (Parish) and historic district development in Westwego."

There is no record of such discretionary funding requests being reduced or withdrawn, but in October of 2003, nearby St. Charles Parish did receive a federal grant for $475,000 to build bike paths on top of its levees

DAM BUSH!

kenny b
 
The levee board promised Times-Picayune readers that the "few manageable gaps" in the walls protecting the city from Mother Nature's waters "will be sealed within four years (1999) completing our circle of protection."
Click to expand...

Sounds like the typical government promise, "this bill will balance the budget in five years". The statement ignores the fact that it is an annual budget and spending is increased for this year. So they are saying that sometime in the future somebody else will become resposible for the promise of responsiblity.

In the same way the levee board was assuring citizens that within four years somebody else would step up to the plate and spend money on the problem instead of using it to by votes and favors.
 
You're surprised?

It's a truism that bureaucrats only pay attention to an issue after it has become a major problem. Before, the levees were just a money-sucking item on a budget that kept getting shunted to the bottom of the spending list.

The problem with government bureaucracies is the lack of accountability for bad decisions. Fingers get pointed, everyone involved says "it wasn't my turf", a few high-profile people may resign, someone reorganizes the bureaucratic structure or creates a new commission or agency (movement equals progress, ya know), and ina few years, everything is back to the way it was.
 
And everyone responsible is immune from lawsuits, too, and can retire on their fat public pensions in comfort on high ground, while the serfs wade through the sewage resulting from their decisions.
 
"Also that June, with the 2004 hurricane season starting, the Corps' project manager Al Naomi went before a local agency, the East Jefferson Levee Authority, and essentially begged for $2 million for urgent work that Washington was now unable to pay for. From the June 18, 2004 Times-Picayune:

"The system is in great shape, but the levees are sinking. Everything is sinking, and if we don't get the money fast enough to raise them, then we can't stay ahead of the settlement," he said. "The problem that we have isn't that the levee is low, but that the federal funds have dried up so that we can't raise them."

The panel authorized that money, and on July 1, 2004, it had to pony up another $250,000 when it learned that stretches of the levee in Metairie had sunk by four feet. The agency had to pay for the work with higher property taxes. The levee board noted in October 2004 that the feds were also now not paying for a hoped-for $15 million project to better shore up the banks of Lake Pontchartrain.

The 2004 hurricane season was the worst in decades. In spite of that, the federal government came back this spring with the steepest reduction in hurricane and flood-control funding for New Orleans in history. Because of the proposed cuts, the Corps office there imposed a hiring freeze. Officials said that money targeted for the SELA project -- $10.4 million, down from $36.5 million -- was not enough to start any new jobs."

"One project that a contractor had been racing to finish this summer: a bridge and levee job right at the 17th Street Canal, site of the main breach on Monday."

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001051313
 
It looks like over the last 10 years the federal goverment has allocated funds many times over twords the projects with pennies on the dollar making it to the proposed purpose if any at all. This is abuse at the local level, it's criminal abuse and patronage jobs. Yet people are holding the federal goverment at fault instead of the State and local goverment.

kenny b
 
My take on the whole situation is that during this administration federal funds are drying up. Of course, the big eagle never handed out free money. It was a bribe. For example, money given to schools on condition that the school adopts certain federal policies.

Bad news is the federal gov't is giving away less money. Good news is they are loosening control on the states.

My property taxes have just about doubled this year. That sucks. I'm paying $2058.41 next year for my house alone. My household income is about $48000 a year. So I'm paying over 4% of my gross income in property taxes. I haven't paid any federal income tax this year. That doesn't suck. This is almost a complete reversal of where I was 15 years ago, when I paid $400 in property tax and $2000 in federal taxes.

If this is indicative of what is happening to other working class families around the nation, I'm all for it. As long as it continues in this manner we have more say in what our local gov't does for us.

The South Florida Water Management District has a $1 billion dollar budget this year. I feel better knowing I can go there after work and see the local officials deciding what to do with my money, than to think some bureaucrat in Washington is gambling with my life.

A caveat: This weak federal gov't and strong state and local gov't thing will only work if people hold their local gov't responsible for their actions. Let's see how this shapes out in the end. Perhaps we as a nation are not responsible for governing ourselves, and will have to rely on a nanny state run by the feds.
 
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Louisiana and New Orleans have been under Democrat control for 60 years, and they have very carefully set things up so that people are incapable of holding their local government responsible for their actions.
 
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