[StBernard] CityBusiness Cites Walter Isaacson in Editorial Urging President Bush to Waive 10% Match

[Westley Annis]

CityBusiness Cites Walter Isaacson in Editorial Urging President Bush to Waive 10% Match 

One of the LRA's key functions is to secure funding and other resources for the rebuilding of South Louisiana. Over recent weeks and months and at the urging of the LRA, several national and local editorial pages have called on President Bush to waive Louisiana's federal cost share as the state rebuilds from the first and third most catastrophic disasters in American history. The cost share requirement was waived for New York following 9/11 and for Florida after Hurricane Andrew. This is one of several recent editorials from CityBusiness on the issue. 

Editorial: Presidential waiver No. 33 needed 
New Orleans CityBusiness
April 23, 2007

Tucked away in $110 billion of federal relief money committed to rebuilding the Gulf Coast after the disastrous hurricanes of 2005, President George W. Bush insists there is enough money to pay the 10 percent in matching funds required by the Stafford Act to access federal money on the local level.

There are two critical problems with the president's logic.

1) Recovery money should be spent on recovery efforts, and Louisiana has already returned to the feds $400 million in "recovery funding" to satisfy matching requirements. Our "deductible" far exceeds the disaster repayments made in any other situation.

2) The red tape involved with accessing federal relief funds will generate 2.4 million documents to satisfy the Stafford Act. This excessive red tape is strangling the recovery and making a mockery of the president's promise to do "whatever it takes" to restore New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.

Many projects that could be well under way with federal recovery money already in the pipeline, have been hogtied by the 10 percent match needed to access the funding. Post-Katrina, the matching money is simply not there in the neediest municipalities. So, 20,000 recovery projects languish and are not yet started 20 months after the storms.

Louisiana Recovery Authority Chairman Walter Isaacson patiently said he expects the president to come around soon in realizing the Stafford Act should be waived. He said New Orleans recovery czar Ed Blakely's plans to use the funding to restore 17 areas of New Orleans have generated favorable White House response.

"To be fair to all sides, there was money in the original community development block grant bill that could cover the match," Isaacson said. "The White House didn't realize it would take 2.4 million documents and that money would be needed to implement the recovery plan."

With dawning realization the Stafford Act was not designed to cover a disaster of the unprecedented scale of Hurricane Katrina, Isaacson said he believes the White House is moving toward lifting the onerous repayment requirements that have stifled the recovery. 

If the president finally lifts the matching requirements, he would immediately take this recovery to the next level. Blakely's smart business recovery plan requires it.

Blakely's $1.1-billion plan focuses on historic centers, old markets and key traffic junctures. Mayor C. Ray Nagin expects to finance it through a pair of bond issues and with federal funds. 

New Orleans could get the money from the state if the matching requirement were waived. All it takes from the president to keep his word and ignite a true recovery is a pen stroke. 

Since 1985, FEMA has granted waivers of state match for public assistance in 32 different disasters. President Bush should keep his word and make it 33. 

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated South Louisiana, claiming 1,464 lives, destroying more than 200,000 homes and 18,000 businesses. The Louisiana Recovery Authority (LRA) is the planning and coordinating body that was created in the aftermath of these storms by Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco to lead one of the most extensive rebuilding efforts in the world. The LRA is a 33-member body which is coordinating across jurisdictions, supporting community recovery and resurgence, ensuring integrity and effectiveness, and planning for the recovery and rebuilding of Louisiana.

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