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Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Relief Funds Not Reaching Katrina Victims
We’ve been looking at the costs of the president’s border security plan and its impact on the emergency spending bill making its way through Congress. Bush would have the money for his border plan be offset by reducing some military spending, but that begs the question: where else can Congress find almost $2 billion in a $94 billion bill?
There’s certainly lots of pork that could be cut - Trent Lott’s $700 million railroad to nowhere, for example. Peter Whoriskey reports today in the Washington Post how the supplemental spending bill is being divvied up by special interests. But more important than who is getting the money is who is not getting the money.
Eddie Favre is mayor of nearby Bay St. Louis, a small city that bore some of the worst of the storm surge. He said he found it difficult to support the purchase of the CSX rail line because of the more pressing demands he faces.
The city's property tax base has dropped from $87 million to $27 million because of the destruction, he said, and the city is in dire financial straits.
The railroad purchase "may be a great project, but to me there's a lot more pressing needs that the $700 million could cover," he said. "I don't know how I'm going to pay our police. I don't know how we're going to pay our teachers. I don't even know if there is going to be a city anymore."
There are a lot of homes in the Gulf Coast region destroyed by Katrina that will not be rebuilt with Katrina reconstruction funds because small communities and citizens have no voice in Congress. Lobbying reform has all but completely dropped of the radar screen of Congress, yet it is even more pressing that our lawmakers be responsive to the needs of its citizens and not their favorite lobbyists or campaign contributors.
Posted by Craig Jennings
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