[StBernard] Editorials Support GulfGov Recommendations

[Westley Annis]

>From time to time, the LRA shares articles or editorials about issues surrounding the recovery. The Lafayette Daily Advertiser and the Times-Picayune issued the following editorials addressing the need for proportional federal recovery funding for Louisiana.


Editorials Support GulfGov Recommendations, Call for Washington to Cut Red Tape and Provide Recovery Funds Proportional to Damage


EDITORIAL: Officials should act on GulfGov ideas 
Saturday, September 22, 2007 
Lafayette Daily Advertiser

Two organizations without ties to government and politics have joined the Blanco administration in criticizing federal disaster aid programs for the slow pace of recovery from the 2005 hurricanes. The organizations are the Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana, described as an independent voice and catalyst for governmental reform, and the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government, the public policy research arm of the State University of New York. 

The two entities, in GulfGov Reports, which they publish jointly, blame the slow pace of recovery in Louisiana and Mississippi on the fact that federal disaster aid programs now in place were not designed to handle the devastation caused by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The report is critical of FEMA public assistance funding and of HUD's Community Development Block Grant program. It says slow disbursement of grants is debilitating to the recovery efforts of the two states. 

"It is evident from the continuing slow pace of the recovery more than two years after the storms that other avenues need to be explored,'' the joint report says. 

The two organizations support the claims of Louisiana officials that the federal aid provided the two states is not proportional to the amount of damage suffered. The Advertiser has made the same argument since the first issuance of federal recovery funds. 

GulfGov Reports says Louisiana suffered 67 percent of the major and severe housing damage and received 62 percent of the block grant funding. Mississippi, the report says, suffered 20 percent of the major housing damage and received 33 percent of the block grant funding. 

Louisiana officials have tried for months to point out to federal officials the unfairness of the allocation of federal dollars. We hope, attention will be paid to the PAR/Rockefeller report. Andy Kopplin, Louisiana Recovery Authority executive director, calls it an independent validation of what Louisiana has been saying to Washington. 

Kopplin says, "Red tape needs to be cut and reconstruction funds provided fairly to states in proportion to damages.'' 

*	To read the full story on the Daily Advertiser Web site click here <http://www.theadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070922/OPINION01/709220318/1014/NEWS17> . 

EDITORIAL: Backing our case
Monday, September 24, 2007
Times Picayune

Any independent observer would agree that Louisianians have not been treated fairly when it comes to how the federal government has distributed recovery dollars for victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. 

But members of Congress considering Louisiania's request for additional aid don't have to take our word for it. They can read a new report by two independent policy research groups that solidly makes our case. 

The document, released last week by GulfGov Reports, concluded that the federal aid provided to Louisiana and Mississippi "is not proportional to the amount of damage each state suffered." 

GulfGov is a joint project of the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government and the Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana and represents groups in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. 

The report, using figures from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, concludes that Louisiana had 67 percent of homes with major or severe damage eligible for Community Development Block Grants, yet the state got only 62 percent of block grant money. By contrast, Mississippi had 20 percent of similarly damaged homes, but received a third of CDBG aid. 

The discrepancy is far more pronounced if one just considers homes that were destroyed. And, of course, damage in Mississippi was caused only by a natural disaster. In New Orleans, tens of thousands of homes and hundreds of lives were lost because of the failure of federally built levees. 

*	To view the full story on the Times-Picayune Web site click here <http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/editorials/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1190614301258170.xml&coll=1> . 

*	Click here to view the Rockefeller Institute's GulfGov Report: Spending Federal Disaster Aid <http://www.rockinst.org/WorkArea/showcontent.aspx?id=12268> . 
*	To read LRA Executive Director Andy Kopplin's statement on the Gulf Gov report, click here. <http://www.lra.louisiana.gov/pr091707gg.html> 


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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