Rebuilding Katrina-torn homes: not on taxpayer's dime

By Brad Plothow

September 22, 2005 | Don't get me wrong. I applaud any efforts to save lives and repair the storm-torn Gulf Coast. But it's about time the government defined its role with respect to disaster relief. After all, the billions poured into FEMA hardly paid dividends when it mattered most.

The public's eyes were opened to a special kind of inefficiency after the Sept. 11 terror attacks: disaster relief incompetence. Four years ago, it was a non-profit organization -- the Red Cross, the sacred cow of charities -- that failed to distribute roughly half of its emergency funds to the people it collected them for: 9-11 victims.

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, another entity has offered to facilitate disaster relief. It is the federal government's turn, and this time our contributions to the relief effort aren't optional. People do background checks on charities before donating, so why not do one on the government?

President Bush has promised roughly $200 billion in disaster relief to portions of the Gulf Coast ravaged by the mammoth storm, and Congress has already approved more than $60 billion of it. Let's just hope this doesn't become a repeat of the Red Cross debacle. It seems as if whenever taxpayer funds are bandied about, pet projects and special interests end up lining their pockets.

It would be a shame if that were the case in Katrina's aftermath. Even if the money is used effectively, what constitutes proper use of such a huge appropriation? How much of the reconstruction cost should taxpayers shoulder? Is the federal government's role limited to restoring lost infrastructure, or is it responsible for rebuilding neighborhoods?

Our hearts may tell us that the compassionate thing to do is cough up the dough for John Doe's crumbled abode, but it can be a slippery slope when public money is used on private projects.

If private property really is just that -- private -- then why should public funds protect them? If I build a home, I expect that people -- including those in the government -- respect that it is my private property and leave it alone.

But the privileges associated with private property are coupled with responsibility.

If I build in Utah, for example, I have to recognize the risk of an earthquake along the Wasatch Front. I have two choices: accept the financial responsibility if a disaster hits, or divert the liability to insurers. If I rely on a government bailout to restore my property, then is it really my property? Doesn't that make anyone who pays taxes a stakeholder in my property?

Again, don't misunderstand. I have no problem helping people restore their private property, but let's not do it on the taxpayer's dime. There are other avenues for that, and Americans have never shown a lack of generosity when disaster hits.

Congress has appropriated billions of taxpayer dollars over the years to establish and maintain FEMA, and what good did it do when Katrina blew apart New Orleans' levees? FEMA's post-Katrina incompetence has been well documented. This is an agency whose mission it is to respond to disasters, but its first-responders somehow got tied up in red tape when Katrina made landfall.

But that was a first-response blunder. Surely things would be different if the government has time to create a plan to rebuild the Gulf Coast, right? Not if history is any indication.

There has already been talk of the federal government awarding no-bid contracts to begin patching things up. Smells like Halliburton, if you ask me.

The federal government has exhibited glaring inefficiencies when awarding contracts. The Transportation Security Administration was created in response to the Sept. 11 attacks, and one of its first assignments was to award airport security contracts to private firms.

Under TSA's watch in 2002, contractors and subcontractors gouged the government for $303 million in unsubstantiated expenses, including lavish lodging charges, long-distance telephone bills, and a $5.4 million nine-month salary for one subcontractor.

The public post-Katrina role ought to be simple: saves lives in first-response scenarios, and rebuild roads and infrastructure. Leave the private property issues to the homeowners and the insurance adjusters.

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