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Saturday, September 9, 2006

Nah, our government wouldn't do that to us.

I invite the people of New Orleans to take some time out to think about the political history of New Orleans and the rest of Louisiana.

New Orleans has always been Louisiana s largest city.
We are not anymore. We are now 3rd behind Baton Rouge and Sherveport.

The rest of the State of Louisiana, especially those above the South Louisiana Cajun/Catholic line, has always had a love-hate relationship with the City of New Orleans. We in the New Orleans area were different, our faiths, our racial mix, our culture, our flavors, our music. We are different from other areas in Central & North Louisiana. We are different from the rest of “the South”. The relationship has always been a little uncomfortable. Historically the New Orleans generated significant tax revenue for the State of Louisiana and there has been more than on occasion when New Orleans had to fight to have that tax revenue returned to provide services, because once that tax revenue got into the state coffers it belongs to the whole state, regardless of where it was generated.

Take a look at the LRA.
Why is Orleans parish the only parish that has been required to have a master plan before the dollars that the Federal Government has provided to assist recovery can begin to flow and allow repairs to essential services? In December, the federal government provided recovery dollars to the people of South Louisiana who were affected by Katrina and Rita. Why is it that the State of Louisiana is still holding on to the money? Perhaps the are those in power in Baton Rouge that are hoping that the victims of Katrina and the Corp of Engineers will give up trying to jump through all the hoops the LRA puts before us and then the recovery dollars can end up in the hands of other Louisiana cities.
Nah, our government wouldn't do that to us.