Blanco cleared in non-partisan report

[quote name='dennis_t']I'll hold my breath waiting for PAD to admit his error...[/QUOTE]

So, when is the funeral going to be?
 
Yes, we know all about this "non-partisan" report comissioned by John Conyers and hosted on a .gov by the Democratic members of the House judiciary committee.

It's so sterling in its non-partisan objectivity I can barely place my eyes upon it.

When Tom Tancredo releases his "non-partisan" report I'm sure you'll be right there embracing the results too right?
 
[quote name='PittsburghAfterDark']Yes, we know all about this "non-partisan" report comissioned by John Conyers and hosted on a .gov by the Democratic members of the House judiciary committee.

It's so sterling in its non-partisan objectivity I can barely place my eyes upon it.

When Tom Tancredo releases his "non-partisan" report I'm sure you'll be right there embracing the results too right?[/QUOTE]

Wow, you complain that people don't debate here, and then you blast something without even reading it.

It is a long report, 27 pages, and I looked throught the first 12, and it just appears to deal with what happened just before and the time after Katrina hit. I wouldn't say that the report clears Blanco, just that she followed the steps of what was required in an emergency. This does not look into disaster planning, as far as i can tell, which was sorely lacking in terms of what to do with the people who cannot get out on their own. This is something that Blanco has to take the blame for, and also the mayor, who didn't have supplies in the Superdome or the conventions center. If you know you are going to use those places as shelters, you need to have the supplies there. The only excuse he could have for that is if he didn't have the money to supply them, since NO and LA did have financial problems. They had to borrow money to pay the Saints $15 mil in June:

State borrows cash for Saints payment

Associated Press


Photo illustration by Ferris Williams

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BATON ROUGE — The state again will borrow the cash needed to make its annual payment to the New Orleans Saints, thanks to a loan arrangement approved Monday, though it's unclear how that borrowing will be repaid or how the state will meet its future obligations to the NFL team.

The state has struggled to pay the Saints for the past few years and has yet to repay the cash it borrowed from an economic development fund last year to make its payment. This time, the state will borrow $10.5 million through a financing mechanism it hasn't used for at least a decade.

Members of the State Bond Commission, which approved the plan Monday, said few options were available after the Legislature adjourned last week without approving a new tax source for the Saints payment or setting aside dollars in the state's budget to make the latest payment, due July 5.

"We have an obligation that we have to live up to. Some of us may not agree that it's the best contract, but it's a contract we have to live up to. The full faith and credit of the state is behind it," said Sen. Diana Bajoie, D-New Orleans.

The state — through the Louisiana Stadium and Exposition District, which oversees the operation of the Superdome — will borrow the cash through the sale of a "revenue anticipation note," which assumes that money generated down the line will cover the repayment of the loan.

The head of the LSED and members of the Bond Commission aren't sure where the dollars will come from to repay this loan, however. The Bond Commission's staff, which normally suggests whether items on the agenda should be approved or rejected, didn't make a recommendation on the Saints payment loan, noting that the current money streams available to the LSED aren't sufficient to repay the borrowing.

But the New Orleans-area legislators on the money panel said the loan arrangement was preferable to defaulting on the state's agreement with the Saints and allowing them to leave penalty-free. Andy Kopplin, Gov. Kathleen Blanco's chief of staff who sits on the Bond Commission, said the governor backed the plan as a short-term remedy until a permanent solution could be developed.

Sen. Francis Heitmeier, D-New Orleans, said defaulting on the deal would harm the state's economic development initiatives and indicate Louisiana doesn't honor its contracts.

"What we did today wasn't pretty," said Treasurer John Kennedy, head of the Bond Commission. "If you look strictly at the numbers, you probably wouldn't do this, but there's a story beyond the numbers."

The annual payments to the Saints are part of a 10-year, $186 million agreement negotiated by Gov. Mike Foster's administration in 2001. A $15 million payment is due to the NFL team on July 5, and the state was estimated to be about $9 million short because the revenue sources designed to cover that payment — particularly the New Orleans-area hotel/motel tax — aren't bringing in as much cash as was projected.

The dollars from the loan also will help the LSED pay for insurance costs and other items that haven't been paid while the Superdome commission struggles to make the Saints payments, according to Tim Coulon, head of the LSED.

The debt from the payments to the Saints is compounding. The LSED owes the state economic development fund from which it borrowed last year and must repay this newest loan by Jan. 1, 2007. And the annual payments due to the Saints are scheduled to grow to $20 million next year and to $23.5 million a couple of years later.

The Legislature approved a plan that would put the NFL team in line for some of the tax money generated when slot machines start operating at the New Orleans Fair Grounds in 2007 and thereafter, but officials say that won't bring in enough cash to cover the Saints payments and the money borrowed for them.

"We need a significant amount of money over the long haul," said Doug Thornton, an executive for the company that manages the Superdome, New Orleans Arena and other facilities in the state.

The governor said she still hopes to ultimately renegotiate the deal, but Saints owner Tom Benson has cut off negotiations until after the 2005 football season when the Saints have their first opportunity to negate the current deal with an $81 million payment to the state. The state can opt out of the deal after the 2007 season.
Locals divided over borrowing for NFL team

By Karina Donica
[email protected]

Even as state officials continue the struggle to meet a $186 million economic commitment to the New Orleans Saints, local residents question borrowing again to pay for the NFL football team.

Cheryl Mouliere, 49, of West Monroe said the Saints should be self-funded.

“I think the money the state has now to pay the Saints should be used to pay teachers,” Mouliere said. “The Saints need to go some place else or be self-funded.”

With the next payment deadline approaching, the state now says it will borrow the cash through the sale of “a revenue anticipation note.”

This new loan — the second in as many seasons — has raised some local eyebrows. Last year, the state borrowed from an economic development fund to make the Saints payment.
“I don’t think we really need them,” said Megan Hogg of Mangham. “I think we can find other ways to bring money into the state rather than football.”

The Saints debt is part of a 10-year plan that former Gov. Mike Foster’s administration agreed to in 2001 to keep the National Football League team in the state.

Some fans agreed with that, saying the team is a tourist attraction.
“If the Saints generate money for the state, it is worth it to fund their stay,” said Dexter Walker, 29, a former Grambling University football player from Los Angeles, Calif. “I don’t want to see them leave.”

Walker also believes that if the Saints leave the state, no other professional team would replace them.

Others questioned directing additional public funds to a team that has struggled so much on the field.

The Saints need to win more games, said Chris Wyles, 21, of Columbia. He added that taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay money to keep them in the state.

LaShonda Black, 33, of Monroe, said: “If they were a winning team and would be drawing a lot of revenue for the state, I would say yes.”
But Black, a former teacher, insisted that funding education over football should be a priority.





http://www.thenewsstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050628/SPORTS/506280339/1006
 
[quote name='dennis_t']A new report from the Congressional Research Service found that Gov. Blanco declared a state of emergency in a timely manner, and in keeping with federal law.

http://www.house.gov/judiciary_democrats/crskatrinarept91205.pdf

I'll hold my breath waiting for PAD to admit his error, and apologize for the hateful PhotoShop posts he's been clogging the forum with.[/QUOTE]

Oh, my ass. It's not like he admitted to anything after the roughly 7-12 posts made already showing that Blanco declared a state of emergency in 8/26. One of those posts was even made by PAD himself!!! (Or, rather, the Wash. Post article he linked to had a large, red font text block directly above the article stating that Blanco made that declaration on 8/26; meanwhile, PAD ignored that entirely, and instead relied not on a newspaper correction, but an "anonymous white house source").

So, if PAD can't even deal with the ironic reality of his links contradicting his posts, why bother repeating that which he's too much of a pussy to admit is true?

I proclaim this topic to be inundated with some brilliantly hilarious [/sarcasm] photoshop pics from PAD, followed up by Quackzilla bringing nothing to the table.

Though, in citing a government study that was so quickly refuted by PAD out of hand, you do earn credits for making him look like a chump in that sense.
 
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