Louisiana gets its first FEMA bills, totaling $156 million

[intheflow]

http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/13541465.htm

Louisiana gets its first FEMA bills, totaling $156 million
MELINDA DESLATTE
Associated Press

BATON ROUGE, La. - Louisiana's first bills from FEMA for its share of federal hurricane recovery efforts arrived over the holidays, and they were a doozy: $155.7 million, with a 30-day due date before interest starts accruing.

<snip>

Louisiana's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness received collection statements from FEMA on Dec. 29 for $139.7 million in aid for Hurricane Katrina and $16 million for Hurricane Rita.

State officials don't know how they're going to pay for the first bills or any others. They have been working with federal officials on possible payment plans, but a November estimate projected a daunting price tag that Louisiana ultimately could owe FEMA more than $3 billion.

<snip>

Alabama received a roughly $8 million FEMA bill, and Mississippi got a $55 million statement, Andrews said.

It's disturbing enough that Louisiana, one of the poorest states in the US pre-Katrina, is getting whacked with FEMA debt. But then to see that Mississippi only got billed $55 million when there are whole towns practically wiped off the map in Mississippi underscores both the neglect of the Mississippi coast by FEMA and the Republican-led federal government's punitive attitude toward Democratically-led Lousiana/New Orleans. :grr:

[NanceGreggs]

1. Louisiana should send the bill to ...

... Mike 'Heck of a job' Brown: "YOU broke it, YOU bought it!"

[Whoa_Nelly]

2. Ya know, Bush, with all his REAL rights to executive priviledge

Could forgive the interest for a while...oh..yeah...forgot
Money needed for war...

Katrina aftermath and Gulf recovery is going to be news for many years :cry:

[merwin]

3. Tell me again why we pay federal taxes?

[texpatriot2004]

4. Damn good question nm

[intheflow]

5. To pay for wire tapping the ACLU and the Quakers.

What kind of fantasy world are you living in? Geesh! :eyes:




:P :hi:

[9119495]

20. Bush is dumb enough to wire tap the Amish

[jobycom]

6. That's the question our Democratic leaders should ask on the trail

And all of us should ask it every day. As far as I can see, my tax dollars have just been slipped into Halliburton's pockets, with a hefty finder's fee due to Dick Cheney when he leaves office. It sure wasn't there when my home town needed it.

[ClintonTyree]

10. So we can "nation build" and steal the world's oil supply......

all under the guise of "spreading freedom", of course. :puke: Our tax dollars are better spent in other countries instead of our own because if we don't spend them there, we'll be spending them here! :sarcasm: Sounds a lot like the "war on terra", no?
Meanwhile, our country slips into third world status because we just don't have the money to fund these "give-away" programs. :eyes:
I think the State of Louisiana should do as george bush does, put it all on the credit card and let future generations worry about paying it off.
This is a travesty. One half Trillion dollars, most of it unaccounted for, going into Iraq for a war no one (save the BFEE) wanted yet we're charging our own countrymen (plus interest!) for assistance due to nature's wrath. The priorities of this country are so fucked up under the bush administration it boggles the mind.
Again, who is our government supposed to be working for? :shrug:

[neuvocat]

7. Pay FEMA for what? FEMA didn't do anything.

So much for states rights.

[funkybutt]

8. Does that include the 5-grand for a tarp on your roof!?

it happens when the bill reaches FEMA after going through 5 contractors!

[Twist_U_Up]

9. KICK !!

[Nothing Without Hope]

11. Obscene. Glad to give Rec #5 and put this on the Greatest Page.

Gotta pay all those crony contractors and Blackwater mercs. And stuff like that ice that was shipped all around and never did get to where it was needed. And on and on.

What do you bet that like Iraq, the bookkeeping is utterly corrupt? But with the Bush DoJ, we won't hear anything about that...

[tavalon]

12. There is no depth to which they will not sink

Did FEMA do anything there except obstruct the rescue and rebuild? They're getting a pretty good paycheck there for NOT DOING SHIT!!!!

Great Goddess, the hubris of this administration is just astounding.

[Nothing Without Hope]

13. The FY 2005 Mississippi state budget was ALREADY in deficit:

Typically, the title of the press article in the opening post only mentions Louisiana, but Alabama and Mississippi also got these bills, as shown by the posted excerpt. (Thanks, intheflow, for iincluding this information. I don't want to slight the devastation suffered in Louisiana, but too often the other states are not mentioned.) $55 million is an enormous amount for a poor state like Mississippi, even if it actually paid for something worthwhile instead of for FEMA's blunders and crimes.

I found a site (http://www.cbpp.org/10-22-03sfp2.htm) showing projected state budgets for FY2005, and Mississippi general funds were projected to be 20% in deficit, that is, a deficit of $709 million. That was long before the hurricanes. I would like to know that the actual numbers turned out to be; maybe someone else can find and post them.

[intheflow]

23. OMG!

So much for the myth that Mississippi was gettting rich off those casinos. :eyes:

Thanks for including this information, NWH. Even I didn't know the extent of Mississippi's fiscal woes pre-Katrina.

[agincourt]

14. Proven once again

worst administration in history.

[wavesofeuphoria]

15. I say send the bill to the oil companies ....

$220 m is pocket change given their profits last year ...

[Debau2005]

16. By my calculations...

The article stated:
"States are required by law to pay the costs of 25 percent of that assistance, a provision that only could be changed by Congress, according to FEMA spokeswoman Nicol Andrews." Well, according to my math 25% of $0 is $0! Oh but wait that is real math not Washington, Heck of a Job, Math.

[bdot]

17. Louisiana should declare bankruptcy.

[localroger]

18. We should pay it just as soon as New York...

...oh wait. On second thought, as a friend of mine suggested, maybe we should just refuse to pay it. What are they gonna do, repossess the state?

[lonestarnot]

19. I say wipe your ass on that bill Alabama and Mississippi. Heck of a job

Brownie!

[Nordmadr]

21. So let me see, paid with taxpayer money to begin with, then

repaid to the federal government with taxpayer money. So were just looping the money around. State taxes back to federal government so they can give it back to the crooked rich (not an indictment of all wealthy people, many are quite honest I am sure) and waste it in Iraq. So what purpose does it exactly serve to nankrupt Louisiana? Can you bankrupt a state? Maybe not with the new bankruptcy laws...:sarcasm:

Furthermore, while this repayment may be pre-existing law, uhhh how about a little comon sense. Doh...what was I thinking?

What purpose does it serve to do this? Perhaps it puts the state in a situation where they have to beg help from the Federal government, whcih then swoops to the rescue...only you have to do these things, and meet this criteria, and change this rule, etc. Look, what do you know, a first rate restructuring of a state by the federal government, state rights be damned. Silly rabbit.

Yes, I know this is all speculation on my part and I have done no research to back it up.

Olafr

[pitohui]

24. the purpose is to destroy a democratic stronghold

the purpose of moving the money around is to bankrupt a state w. a democratic senator (until v. recently, 2 democratic senators), a democratic city (new orleans), and a democratic governor

the policy of the GOP has always been to starve urban areas of federal help because urban areas are governed by democrats and the point is to make the democrats look bad when cities turn out to be shitty places full of slums and drug dealers w.out hope as, indeed, happened in many areas of new orleans

it didn't start w. katrina, it is a policy of several decades

the state should not re-pay the money

colonized areas that put debt service ahead of providing services to the people end up being trapped in long-term poverty, see under latin america, often only the areas that throw off debt service (cuba, venezuela) have even a hope of providing decent services to their people, it would be a shame if louisiana residents felt impelled to start violent revolution just to get fair treatment & yet i already hear the whispers which at this time i would hope are nothing more than whispers, but we know history & we know the feds have been suspicious of this state since days of huey long

it is better for the state to simply refuse to repay, than to stop providing health care & education & other services to its population, creating a breeding crowd for poverty, disease, drug sales, crime and even revolution that will spread out to affect all other states

what will the feds do if we refuse to repay? they ALREADY take our oil and gas w.out paying taxes or benefits comparable to those received by texas, alaska, etc, we get so little from our resources that there is really nothing more they CAN seize if we default

so i say just don't pay it

the consequences of attempting to pay this bill seem much worse than the consequences of not paying the bill

vitter claimed two months ago that the "loans" would be forgiven, where is he now, where is the rest of the GOP now -- all i'm hearing is "crickets" -- gosh, you think the GOP lied again?

[usedtobesick]

22. tell them sure we'll put our best team on it. Brown is a consultant now

and would be available to lead his crack team to study and research paying it off...:sarcasm:

I wonder what the federal government owes LA/MS/TX/AL/Fl in unreleased funds for Highway work, Police Hiring, No child left behind money, and other unfunded mandatory programs in the past year. I bet all of the states come out ahead in that deal...

and a Wed Morning... Kick!

[Tyler Durden]

25. Give 'em ONE YEAR of Israel's Foreign Aid Tab.

We pony up FIVE BILLION (from an NPR article, today) to Israel every year. They're our biggest Foreign "AID" receiver.

Not to pick on Israel in particular, but this year, CHARITY BEGINS AT HOME.