The Fix Our Streets Task Force Makes Headway

We are seeing some good news in that the Fix My Streets task force is looking at options for repairing up to 1,500 miles of streets in NOLA.  With streets all over the city needing repair, we are hoping that —-the streets of Lakeview— will be on the list of roads that they recommend for repair.

Recent City Reports

The plans are coming out spurred by two reports, recently released by the city of New Orleans, on NOLA street conditions.  One of the reports, released on August 28th,  is a detailed look at each and every street in New Orleans and their current condition. That report showed the city will need to spend between $200 million and $350 million each year on capital improvements like road reconstruction and an additional $30 to $35 million annually on street maintenance.

The second pertinent report is a look at the financial options that the city has in raising money to fix NOLA streets.  This report is due sometime in September.

Task Force Meets

The Fix Our Streets task force recently met to discuss how they would use the new city reports to make recommendations to the city. Mich Landrieu had requested that the task force put their recommendations together in an official report.

 “We have yet to sit around and look at one sheet of paper that says this is where the money is coming from and this is where the money is going,” task force member Freddy Yoder, a construction industry executive. “We need to get the word out and put it in simple terms that people can understand.”

The city told the task force has recently hired the PFM Group to start their analysis of the different funding sources that the city could utilize to pay for the street repairs.  The repairing of NOLA streets are expected to cost $5 billion over the next 20 years.

Sources of Street Repair Funds

It has been suggested that property taxes may need to be increased in an effort to raise money to fix the streets in many of the NOLA neighborhoods.  In addition, the city has negotiated with FEMA, a $2 billion dollar settlement for post Katrina infrastructure, but those funds would not be enough to cover the cities current needs.

Other options for raising funds included selling bonds and transportation utility fees as well as tapping the state capital outlay process.  Another option, less likely to make it to the final draft is removing some property tax exemptions for non-profits, but that would require legislative action and voter support.

As of now, it is not clear how the city of New Orleans will raise the additional funds (to the FEMA settlement) for the street repairs, but with the talks ongoing, we hope to see a plan for street repairs soon.