La vs. Miss--Again


OK, kidding aside, because this is one where neither state comes up a winner:

State officials compare damage and relief aid with Mississippi

In the comparisons of hurricane damage, Louisiana's debris stacks up higher in landfills and stretches wider across cities and towns than Mississippi's destruction.

And state officials never shy away from pointing out that fact, in requests for money and in comments about dollars received.

The comments are accurate, and the comparisons are valid — particularly after similar comparisons have been forced upon the state, about how Louisiana's recovery matches up against Mississippi's reconstruction and how Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco responded versus how Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour reacted after Hurricane Katrina whacked the Gulf Coast.

But there's a fine line in the weighing of damage, the measuring of pain and destruction.

It can bolster Louisiana's requests for financial assistance by demonstrating the depth of need, or it can simply look crass, like Louisiana officials are trying to discount Mississippi's misery to help alleviate their own.

After the 2005 hurricane season ended, Louisiana had 786,000 people displaced; 217,000 homes and 18,800 businesses destroyed; 835 damaged schools; 10 ruined hospitals and 240,000 fewer people employed, according to Blanco's Louisiana Recovery Authority. More than 1,000 Louisiana residents were killed by Katrina and the storm's flooding.

Mississippi had 110,000 displaced residents; 68,700 homes and 1,900 businesses destroyed; 263 damaged schools; two ruined hospitals and 46,000 fewer employed residents, according to an LRA comparison of storm impact. More than 200 people died because of Katrina in Mississippi.

"We have three times the population and five times the damage as Mississippi," said U.S. Rep. Richard Baker, R-Baton Rouge.

The comparisons became more pronounced when Congress allocated $29 billion in hurricane recovery aid. For example, Congress earmarked an even split of assistance for each state's colleges, $95 million each.

But the rub for most Louisiana officials came with the set aside of $11.5 billion in Community Development Block Grants, a pool of federal dollars that allow states large flexibility in the spending. No state — in other words, Louisiana — can get more than 54 percent of the cash, or $6.2 billion. Mississippi will get at least $5.3 billion.

Blanco keeps pointing out that Louisiana is estimated to have 70 percent of the damage of the two states.

"That just means that we don't have as much money to cover as many people and as many troubles as Mississippi's gotten," Blanco said on WWL-AM.

Mississippi, however, has more congressional clout, including a senator who is chairman of the committee that appropriated the money. U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran pushed for the block grant cash, which wasn't part of the request for hurricane assistance made by the Bush administration.

Blanco already said she will be asking Congress for more assistance, but she noted that she shouldn't complain too much because Cochran offered Louisiana more than it was originally on track to receive in block grant dollars.

"Fifty-four percent of something is better than 70 percent of nothing," Blanco said at an LRA meeting.

Other officials, however, continue to compare the damage. They might want to watch their words, particularly in a state with a sketchy reputation and the baggage of a corrupt past.

Louisiana already is walking the tight rope, trying to offset an early $250 billion request from its two U.S. senators that made the state appear greedy with more tempered, specific project funding requests.

A couple of points here: first, as I said above, NEITHER state is a winner. And ANYONE, I mean ANYONE who thinks the Gret Stet or Mississippi wouldn't be a hell of a lot happier if Katrina never made landfall needs to have a thorough head examination.

Second, I've made this "modest proposal" before, and I'll offer it again: there should be a DOLLAR FOR DOLLAR MATCH between money spent on Gulf Coast reconstruction and Operation Enduring Clusterfuck. Period. Actually, I'd prefer to see the military pull back, but until that happens, I'm willing to compromise. I'd like to see which politicians would RATHER throw truckloads of dollars into the desert--where it's proving to be about as useful as square wheels on a car--because I'd pound them over the head with their position EVERY GODDAMNED DAY, i.e., "here's a person who'd rather piss money away overseas than put it to useful, and badly needed work right here in this country."

I call bullshit on those who allege state corruption is too pervasive, and that it's good for Congress to suddenly rediscover a measure of fiscal prudence (as if). As I put in comments over at YRHT, the Shrub cabal makes Dick Leche look like a piker. And, since such apologists for federal penury have either forgotten--or don't want to admit it--I'll remind them that Boh Brothers was on-time and under budget in completing the initial phase of twin span reconstruction. No, it's NOT fiscal prudence these fuckers are arguing for--I think we all know what their real motivation is...

Funny enough, the same motivation is a major factor in Operation Desert Money Dump.