May 26th, 2007 at 7:41 am
Is this hurricane over yet?
The New York Times reports that in order to receive funds, state and local governments previously had to pay 10% of the cost of repairing their roads and schools. A provision in the Iraq supplemental bill now lifts that requirement.
Under a law enacted by Congress in 1988, the Federal Emergency Management Agency can pay for 90 percent of infrastructure repairs after significant natural disasters. The requirement that state and local governments match that by paying the other 10 percent was intended to prevent fraud and waste by giving them a financial stake in their own projects.
That was an interesting idea, and it should have been received more press. Now the state and local governments have no self-governing incentive to keep costs down. Consider Louisiana:
Louisiana intends to use money freed by the new waiver to help shore up its federally financed program helping homeowners rebuild their houses. That program, called the Road Home, is facing an eventual shortfall of about $2.9 billion, according to state estimates. More families have applied than the state anticipated, and have qualified for higher-than-expected grants.
The federal aid that was intended for building roads and schools now allows Louisiana to build houses. It will be interesting to see if these houses remain public property or whether they are given away as simply another entitlement.
If 10% was too much, perhaps the rate should have been lowered to five or even one percent. Alas, local government agencies seem to be the only entities that can cry about federal over-regulation and get their grievances answered.
More: It turns out that the federal government did intend to spend money on flood-damaged homes, but not wind-damaged homes, the Washington Post reports.
“The Bush Administration has been asking us to discriminate against storm victims since day one,” Andy Kopplin, director of the Louisiana Recovery Authority, said in a written statement last night. “We rejected it then and we reject it today. . . . These are American citizens we’re talking about, and they’ve been out of their homes for almost two years now. Enough is enough.”
Chalk up another reason as to why government is not an effective source of charity: the recipients aren’t thankful for the aid they do get.
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...
