Arrogance, thy Name is Blanco

Remember that story about the guy who killed his parents and then pleaded for leniency on the grounds that he was an orphan. Well, he must have relatives in Louisiana.

Governor Kathleen Blanco says if the state is forced to pay back the federal government more than 30 million dollars, the state's children and sick will suffer. This week, FEMA officials sent a letter demanding back 30.4 million dollars back in misspent flood buyout money.

Governor Blanco is very concerned about that FEMA demand letter. She says the state simply does not have that kind of money just laying around. Blanco says a 30 million dollar hit to the state budget would be devastating.

"The regretful thing is if we have to come up with 30 million dollars, it takes away from children, it takes away from the sick... you know, very, very important initiatives."

According to FEMA, the Louisiana Office of Homeland Security which is the overseeing agency misspent the money over a five-year period. The money is for buying out homes that habitually flood.

The letter references a federal Office of Inspector General's report which lists, among other ineligible expenses, a 2002 Ford Crown Victoria, audio and video equipment, office supplies, travel, professional dues, charitable donations, an L.L. Bean briefcase, a rain coat, and a trip to Germany by a Louisiana Homeland Security person as money that has to be sent back.

Read the whole thing here.

The claim was actually made back in March, not just this week. Blanco is just taking advantage of the current crisis to try to get it wiped out. And there's more! The LA Times reports:

Senior officials in Louisiana's emergency planning agency already were awaiting trial over allegations stemming from a federal investigation into waste, mismanagement and missing funds when Hurricane Katrina struck.

And federal auditors are still trying to track as much as $60 million in unaccounted for funds that were funneled to the state from the Federal Emergency Management Agency dating back to 1998.

This has suddenly become a matter of great concern because...,

The problems are particularly worrisome, federal officials said, because they involve the Louisiana Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, the agency that will administer much of the billions in federal aid anticipated for victims of Katrina.

Read it here.

Hey, it's just business as usual in the most corrupt state in the union.

Captain Ed over at Captain's Quarters writes:

All of this shows that Louisiana left itself woefully unprepared for the catastrophic damage of Katrina. Small wonder that state and local officials reacted like deer in the headlights of an oncoming truck in the days before and after landfall. Funds that could have gone towards emergency preparedness, identificantion and abeyance of hazardous materials, and especially identifying fraud and abuse went elsewhere. Now Louisianans and New Orleans' evacuees must pay the price for the corruption and incompetence of not only their leadership but also their bureaucracy. Is it difficult to understand why more than half of the displaced have little desire to return?

Read it here.