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Day 39 AM: FEMA Wants Shelter Residents To Go Home; Charity & University Hospitals Condemned; Tax Relief Proposal; FoodFoodFood; The Politics Of Failure

FEMA To Hurricane Victims: “Go Home!”: FEMA acting chief, R. David Paulison, recently suggested to a Senate panel that the victims of Hurricane Katrina must be urged to return home. The main reason appears to be that many remain in shelters despite housing availability (temporary or permanent) back home.

… hundreds of thousands of hurricane victims remain in hotel rooms and emergency shelters ” despite more than $2 billion already spent by FEMA for 120,000 temporary trailers and mobile homes. Only 109 Louisiana families have been put in those homes, while tens of thousands of state residents remain in shelters …

… victims still in shelters face an Oct. 15 deadline, set by President Bush, to find more stable housing ” including apartments, trailers and in some cases, hotels. Meanwhile, FEMA is weighing whether to extend a program that reimburses the American Red Cross for the cost of hotel rooms for victims. That program is set to expire Oct. 24.

Charity & University Hospitals Condemned: Hurricane Katrina has left these two medical centers “dangerous, dangerous places.” Charity, opened in 1939, needed a major overhaul even before the hurricane, and this is an opportunity to build anew and up to code. Residents of New Orleans fear the resulting job losses. When the new hospitals are built, the jobs will be back, too. This isn’t as dire as the layoffs at City Hall.

The two hospitals treated more than 500,000 patients a year … “We are going to build newer, more modern facilities that will withstand the test of time. They will withstand the next storm, and the one after that,” said [Donald Smithburg, chief executive officer of the Louisiana State University Health Care Services Division.] “Charity and University have anchored the health care system of southern Louisiana for over one-hundred years. We believe they should be replaced quickly to ensure they provide health care for the next one-hundred years and beyond.”

Nagin Announces Individual And Business Tax Relief Proposal: Along with requests for improved travel and hurricane-protection infrastructure measures, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has handed the federal government a proposal for “a package of tax incentives designed to fuel the repopulation of a city.” Remember: it’s only a proposal.

… anyone who lives and works in New Orleans would be eligible for a 50 percent federal tax credit on total taxable wages [with] a cap of $50,000 for individuals and $100,000 for couples who file joint income tax returns.

The program, which Nagin has dubbed the Katrina Tax and Jobs Incentive Zone, also would offer a break for companies that operate in the city now or decide to locate in New Orleans in the future [with a] 50 percent federal income tax credit on their total payroll for employees who live and work in the city. That credit would be capped annually at their total tax liability, which means a business would not be able to save more than it owes in taxes … the tax credit could not be transferred to a third party or credited to a prior or future year.

This proposal is similar to the one offered up earlier this week by Governor Kathleen Blanco. New Orleans residents wonder what will happen with state taxes.

FoodFoodFood: New Orleans restaurants are coming back sooner than you can say “Wanna muffaletta?” Already, 80 Orleans Parish restaurants have been certified by state health inspectors. The big challenge to restaurant owners now is finding employees.

Burger King seems to understand that New Orleans is still fertile consumer ground, with higher wages and end-of-month bonuses to attract workers back. If BK wants to stay in New Orleans, I don’t understand what any other company’s problem is.

Undrinkable water or not, muck or not, people want to eat!

The Politics Of Failure: Elsewhere in the nation, the CIA will not hold accountable those federal agencies responsible for the security failures leading up to 9/11. To an American citizen and a resident of New Orleans, this news does not bode well for the inquiry that is almost certainly needed in the wake of Katrina. As long as elected officials and their appointees are not held answerable for their decisions, such oversights will continue to occur across this nation and in areas we occupy. America will only suffer again and again by not learning from previous lessons in (mis)communication and lack of cooperation across federal (and state and local) agencies.

2 comments… add one
  • brimful October 7, 2005, 3:46 PM

    I find the closing of Charity Hospital very sad, and very dangerous in this day… the chances of creating another hospital dedicated to serving those who cannot afford health care seem slim. :(

  • Jeffrey October 9, 2005, 3:20 PM

    You let me know when you want to go all Vendanta on my ass–I haven’t forgotten! Just throwing a spanner in the political banter you know…think of what Ma V-R would say (what would Ma V-R say? D only does an impression of you dad!). Anyway, just bringing you back on track–don’t throw out the glove to JRSB, it only eggs me on. OCD and all that jazz, you know. Besides, I’m bored in Paris–can’t speak french well enough to spar philosophy yet.

    So how are things? (oh, yeah–I’m supposed to be social as well in a public forum, so I’m following through)

    Cheers,
    J.

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