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Jewish World Review Oct. 14, 2005 / 11 Tishrei, 5766 Common sense, not politics, should guide rebuilding after Katrina By Peter A. Brown
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
While doing some work at my house recently, I found the best way not to be ripped off was to break the estimated costs down to terms I could understand.
Using a variation of that approach — figuring how many hours were needed and the hourly rate — I sought to get a handle on just how much tax money will be going to rebuild the Gulf Coast from Hurricane Katrina.
It works out to about $67,000 per household, or about $25,000 per person — for those who want to know how I got that figure, keep reading — which on the surface sure seems like a lot of money.
And the $67,000 figure is just counting the money that Congress already has authorized.
It doesn't count the hundreds of billions of dollars more that Gulf Coast politicians are asking for from Washington.
If all the requested spending were approved, the overall tab from the hurricane might cost about $250,000 per household.
Of course that doesn't count the money — perhaps $40,000 or so per household, even though the amount will vary widely — that many of Katrina's victims will get from their insurance companies. Or the Red Cross money.
That is, without doubt, serious folding money — even in Washington, D.C.
But it is a tough call whether that is too much. We all feel for the victims, and even with the financial remuneration, who would want to be in their place?
Yet the nagging question remains: Does the huge amount of money being thrown around turn a catastrophe for almost 2.5 million people in the hardest-hit areas into an unreasonable raid on the U.S. Treasury?
Many would say that it sure seems that way on the surface when you look at it on a per-person or per-family basis.
Heck, I'm sure there are an awful lot of families who would happily take $50,000 from the feds and make new lives in locales that are neither on the water nor below sea level.
Clearly, that would be cheaper in terms of the current expenditures. It also would save a bunch the next time a major hurricane hits there.
U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert was widely condemned for suggesting that it might not be fiscally prudent to rebuild some of the areas destroyed by the hurricane.
The PC crowd forced him to hem and haw. Then Congress just started spending.
Faced with the potential price tag, however, Hastert may have been on to something.
The tough question is: Should the federal government pay whatever it takes so everyone who lived in the area can return without requiring changes that make a duplication of the Katrina scenario less likely?
Should the feds, if they are going to pay each of the victims so much cash, not be able to set conditions on what is rebuilt and where people go, based on considerations other than the desire of the folks who once lived there?
The Census Bureau says there are slightly fewer than 2.5 million people in the parts of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana hardest hit by Katrina.
Nationally, there is an average of 2.7 people per household. If you divide the $62.5 billion Congress already has approved by the roughly 930,000 households, that works out to about $67,000 each.
Now, of course, much of that money is going to rebuild public infrastructure and the like, not as direct payments to the people victimized by Katrina.
Yet if we rebuild exactly what was there, aren't we just inviting another similar catastrophe? Given the huge amounts of money being tossed around, it is not hard to wonder whether the flow of cash needs to be slowed in order to allow the country to understand just how the money is going to be spent.
More important, isn't it prudent to deal with the issue honestly?
Let's not let those who use the race card — by arguing that because New Orleans was a majority-black city it needs to be rebuilt exactly as it was to ensure the same demographic mix — guilt Congress into spending money where it makes no sense.
Certainly, given the cash the federal government (your money) is contributing, it has the right and responsibility to play a major role in deciding where rebuilding should take place.
Common sense, not politics, should be the guiding concern.
We all give lip service to the notion that local governments should be able to call the shots. But that is as it should be when they are spending their own tax money.
Frankly, the record doesn't make me want to trust my money to the whims of Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin.
Giving them absolute control over the equivalent of perhaps $250,000 per family just doesn't make sense to me.
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Peter A. Brown is an editorial page columnist for the Orlando Sentinel. Comment by clicking here. © 2005, Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services |
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