[StBernard] (no subject)

[Westley Annis]

Baker presents Louisiana with alternative housing plan
April 11, 2006
By John Hill
jhillbr at gannett.com

BATON ROUGE -- U.S. Rep. Richard Baker showed up at the state Capitol on
Monday with a new study of his failed federal housing recovery plan that he
suggested Louisiana should consider.

Not long after Baker's press conference Monday afternoon, the Louisiana
Senate approved a resolution authorizing the Louisiana Recovery Authority to
spend the first $549 million of federal hurricane recovery funds, including
$17 million in start-up costs for the governor's housing program that will
assist owners of 80,000 Louisiana homes destroyed by hurricanes Katrina and
Rita.

 
But Monday night, Republicans and other Blanco opponents stopped a vote on a
similar resolution on the floor of the state House of Representatives. House
opponents said the Legislature should not authorize Louisiana Recovery
Authority to spend money on a housing grant administration contract without
knowing more about how the company would be selected.

A resolution approving the Blanco recovery spending plan must be approved by
both houses.

Baker, a Baton Rouge Republican, said his plan, blocked in Congress by the
White House, could be meshed with the governor's plan to provide more aid to
more expensive houses.

Republicans in the Legislature tried unsuccessfully to slow the resolution
going forward with the housing plan in the Senate but found far more
anti-Blanco political support in the House. House Speaker Joe Salter,
D-Florien, pulled his resolution authorizing the spending in face of fierce
opposition.

Baker had suggested a delay in approving the governor's plan -- which has
been adopted by the recovery authority and is now up for the federally
required public comment period before going to the U.S. Department of
Housing and Urban Development for approval.

Baker said he was not trying to tell the governor or Legislature what to do
but said they should consider the 500-page study by a consulting firm that
analyzed the cost of his proposal.

Based on information on 9,300 homes provided by mortgage companies, the
Gerson Lehrman Group of Washington said the net cost of Baker's plan would
be $10.8 billion, $2 billion more than Blanco's grant program.

Both could be financed with federal disaster relief funds.

"Our rich uncle has passed away and there's only one will," Baker said.
Congress is "getting tired" of Louisiana's asking for more relief money, he
said.

Baker suggested Blanco and lawmakers could "take a couple or three weeks" to
look at the information in the study "to see if there is value in this
plan."

Blanco met with Baker in Washington last week and has received a copy of the
study, said Denise Bottcher, the governor's press secretary.

"She's reviewing the data," Blanco said. "We are proceeding forward with our
open public comment period on the administration's plan."

Louisiana Recovery Authoring estimates it will be August before the first
checks go out to homeowners.


CThe Times
April 11, 2006