Parish governments struggle to cover local emergency costs

[highplainsdem]

Source: Times-Picayune

Parish governments struggle to cover local emergency costs
By Robert Travis Scott, The Times-Picayune
June 01, 2010, 9:24PM


While the state is churning through its federal and corporate grants to meet expenses for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill response, legislators from coastal areas are calling for the state to front money to the affected parishes to cover local emergency costs.

The situation has created a circular argument among the major players in which lawmakers and the parishes have reached out to Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration for financial support, the administration has kept hold of its designated grants while pointing the parishes to BP for direct assistance, and BP so far has provided the great bulk of its cash grants to the state.

Meanwhile, drawing from $60 million in pots of money at its disposal for oil spill costs, the state has spent or obligated $6.7 million for response efforts and awarded $5 million to Attorney General Buddy Caldwell for legal representation of the state.

-snip-

Jindal spokesman Kyle Plotkin said the BP grant does not scratch the surface of the state's eventual costs, which the governor hopes to recover from the company. The grant is not supposed to be divided among the parishes and it is not their only opportunity to get compensation, he said. The governor has asked BP to set up a separate fund for the parishes, Plotkin said.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/06/parish_governments_struggle_to.html

[aquart]

1. BP needs to make a cash deposit to pay for this NOW, not later.

Later gives them an edge. They do not deserve an edge.