With Congress grappling with the nation's financial disaster, it's remarkably fortunate that the body could direct any attention and money to disasters that occurred naturally, from GulfCoast hurricanes to Midwestern floods.
Dwarfed by the $700 billion financial bailout plan, the $23 billion appropriated for federal disaster response includes $6.5 billion in Community Development Block Grants to be divided among the affected states to use as their leaders see fit.
Gov. Bobby Jindal already said what he won't do with the money: set up another homeowner-assistance bureaucracy like the Road Home program, which his administration inherited and still struggles to resolve 22,000 cases in dispute.
He wants to help out homeowners with uninsured losses, especially those not covered by the surprising new hurricane deductibles, but he would rather send the federal money directly to local communities and have them distribute it, or use it for other purposes, like flood protection.
He said he would set broad options and guidelines for local governments or organizations to spend the money, which the Legislative Auditor would track. But mayors and local councils would make the decisions, figure out the details and take the heat for whatever goes wrong.
His is not the usual stance of politicians who don't let anyone or anything get between themselves and the recipients of government aid. Such was former Gov. Kathleen Blanco's choice to slap her name on Road Home, a move which served to send her there after one term.
This governor is shrewd not to tread back into that swamp. As with Katrina-Rita recovery, there is no way to make whole everyone's losses, and more hazard than reward in only going part way.
Natural disasters tend to hurt the poor the most, but the aftermath of Gustav and Ike revealed a class of more affluent victims: well-insured homeowners who found themselves out thousands of dollars from hurricane deductibles amounting to three-to-five percent of house value. The Legislature in the 1990s allowed insurance companies to put higher named-storm deductibles in homeowner policies, but most firms only started doing so after Katrina and Rita, in time for Gustav and Ike.
It hardly seems square for equal damage claims on two similar houses to result in one policyholder getting something while the other gets nothing because he lives in a more desirable neighborhood. Legislators talk about revisiting hurricane deductibles, but, judging by the results of their get-tough rhetoric of recent sessions, not a lot is going to change.
In the meantime, a wise governor would be very cautious about setting a precedent of the state picking up even part of the tab for what insurance doesn't cover. The state's storm commitment already has been expanded to include a ride out of town with pets for whoever wants it, a place to sleep, with a shower, meals and food stamps when they return. The state's disaster bureaucracy is big enough for Jindal not to want to extend entitlements far into the middle class.
What local governments choose to do with their recovery grants will make for an interesting study in political science.
Parish to parish may differ on whether to directly help homeowners or to use the grants for broader public purposes, perhaps to improve flood protection and thus mitigate future losses.
Do parishes figure out on their own how to set up a process for determining uninsured losses and making compensation? What if parishes adopt different standards that result in different grant amounts for similar damage to homes a few miles apart?
Even in the best of circumstances, some local governments will have the leadership and resources to do a better job than others at running local assistance programs, the likes of which have not been run before here. Is that fairer to homeowners than a uniform program administered by the state, which would benefit from economies of scale and the experience of prior rodeos?
The instinct for Louisiana governors is to centralize the power and the money. Among Gov. Jindal's early lessons learned is that sometimes it's better to let go of that, especially when the grief and blame go with it.
Actually I am satisfied with how Piyush is handling things…. I want him to keep doing as he is doing… That way the implementations that he not only represents, but is representative of as well are fully dragged out into the open, and firmly understood…… Governor in a can, just add water and shake well…. Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!!!!!!!!! Written by
on 9/30/2008
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