Posted on 10/14/2005 5:47:47 PM PDT by Libloather
Fired New Orleans city workers get final paychecks
20 minutes ago
Final paychecks were issued to thousands of New Orleans city workers laid off in the wake of ruinous hurricanes, according to city officials. A message posted on the city website provided further details of the layoffs from Mayor Ray Nagin, seen here 6 October(AFP/Getty Images/File)
NEW ORLEANS, United States (AFP) - Final paychecks were issued to thousands of New Orleans city workers laid off in the wake of ruinous hurricanes, according to city officials.
"In addition, all employees who are part of the layoff are asked to turn in any city property immediately, including cell phones, cars and fuel cards," Mayor Ray Nagin said in a message posted Thursday on the city website.
Aftershocks from hurricanes Katrina and Rita continued to batter New Orleans despite signs the crippled city was limping back to life.
"There is no last minute reprieve," Nagin spokeswoman Tammy Frazier told AFP. "This is the last paycheck they will receive."
While bars, restaurants and other businesses were gradually being reopened in the mostly desolate city, most of the residents were still gone and the once-bustling streets were deserted.
Bar operators in the city's famed French Quarter were threatening on Friday to host a midnight party to protest a 12:01 am to 6:00 am curfew they complained is stifling the traditionally festive neighborhood's revival.
The absence of businesses and residents stripped the city of its tax base, prompting Nagin to lay off some 3,000 "non-essential" city workers, about half of the New Orleans workforce.
Nagin tried in vain to get multi-million dollar loans from banks to keep the city workers on payroll, according to Frazier.
"As we look toward a brighter future for our beloved city, we are faced with difficult decisions," Nagin said in a written release.
"We sought funding from every possible public and private source, but unfortunately, we did not receive enough to meet all our needs."
Police, fire and emergency medical personnel remain on the payrolls, with US federal funds paying the bill for overtime.
Nagin expected the cutbacks will save the city between five million and eight million dollars a month.
The layoffs came as stores, restaurants, cleaning and construction companies throughout the New Orleans area went begging for workers.
Local stores were offering to pay from nine to 12 dollars hourly for the usually minimum-wage jobs such as cashiers and stock clerks. One burger chain reportedly offered "signing bonuses" of 6,000 dollars for counter workers.
Laid off city workers whose homes were ruined have no reason to return to New Orleans, said Jacqueline Edwards, who worked in the New Orleans planning department for 23 years.
Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco has urged President George W. Bush to modify federal rules to allow federal aid to pay the wages of local government employees in communities whose tax bases have been wiped out by the storms.
She has also asked Bush to give Louisiana businesses priority in hiring and contracting for the reconstruction effort.
Bush has responded by saying the burden of rebuilding should fall to the private sector.
At least 1,260 people were killed by Katrina when it ripped through the southern United States on August 29, including 1,025 in Louisiana, the hardest-hit state.
Louisiana is ashamed, at least the people I know are. But it is not a new thing with us, it is always there.
Got to go to bed!
Like any other major city though, it had its darker side which became the focus of many after all the media lies about what went on in the convention center, etc.
I live in a rural community, and it never fails that on the rare occasion my county makes the evening news, the reporters will single out some toothless, foul-mouth crone or some nice, but very "backwoods bubba". These images paint everyone in my community with the same broad brush stroke of ignorance. The media did the same with NO.
FWIW, Al Gore was from Tennessee, but I never helped put him in office either, so it's very unfair to blame you for Blanko and Nagin.
Right and thank you.
Now I have to go to bed!
I agree cajungirl and others. This is the same thinking from the left in regards to the war on terror and in iraq - if we let it flounder enough it will fail. And that is good in their eyes
What comes out of NO will hopefully be, for starters, the eventual departure of Nagin and Blanco and their ilk and a slow but sure Pubbie takeover that will recreate NO in the right manner - via open market reconstruction. This welcomes both local and out-of-state employees/company's to duke it out for the reconstruction's main goal - a safer, cleaner, more prosperous New Orleans free of the inherent decades corruption of LA/NO dem pols.
You'd get my vote!
(Love your thread title!)
I thought Nagin lived here in Dallas now. Did he move back?
Without that city's tax $$ coming into the state's treasury, Louisiana will be skirting bankruptcy as well. The out of state bond commission people are wanting their money insured now whereas before - Louisiana was a good risk. And some of them won't even talk to Louisiana now with or without insurance.
The Levee Board members must be hunted down and run out of Louisiana. Here is an example of what they did with tax monies rather than maintain the levees.
"Earlier this year, the levee board did complete a $2.5 million restoration project. After months of delays, officials rolled away fencing to reveal the restored 1962 Mardi Gras fountain in a four-acre park featuring a new 600-foot plaza between famous Lakeshore Drive and the sea wall.
Financing for the renovation came from a property tax passed by New Orleans voters in 1983. The tax, which generates more than $6 million each year for the levee board, is dedicated to capital projects. Levee board officials defended more than $600,000 in cost overruns for the Mardi Gras fountain project, according to the Times-Picayune, "citing their responsibility to maintain the vast green space they have jurisdiction over along the lakefront."
You bet I did. I am a warm personality, so I said it in a way that brought chuckles out of them... but they also know that I am a committed Republican that does not go "quietly into that good night".
After a bit of truth education, they both had their eyes opened to some of the lies that they had been convinced of. I have hopes that they will start the process that leads all of us into the light!
GOD bless,
LLS
We do have a magnificent First Family.
Lott has got to go. We need a real Republican in his seat.
Gene Taylor needs to go also. I don't dislike him, but he is definitely a socialist. I have actually heard him say that the death tax is something we can never get rid of. He says redistribution of wealth is the only way to bring the poor up to the standards of other more fortunate citizens.
I called into the old WGCM radio station where the interview was taking place. I made the statement that the quote "From each according to his ability, To each according to his needs" fit his philosophy to a "T". They disconnected me, and then acted like it was a phone problem.
Gene has got to go! It just ain't right to be represented by a damn dim!
LLS
We'll loan him to you every now and then. Jeb just needs a few days around Haley, and he'll "get his mind right"! ;-)
I was thrilled to see that Jeb has reversed his course on offshore drilling. We need to be drilling anywhere that "Jed's blackgold" (you know, that old mountaineer that barley kept his family fed) resides!
Haley needs to be our governor a bit longer. He just about has the dims in Jackson by the "shorthairs". Like the commercial says, "I'm lovin' it"!
LLS
Right now, Sen. Lott is like a lot of other good Gulf Coast folks. He is hurting.
That said, Barbour for Senate.
Remember, though, that the Deep South used to be solid Dem...bit by bit we are taking it all.
Thank you so much for the lesson, it has helped me understand a lot.
"People need to be told about the good work of Haley Barbour. And, the First Lady of Mississippi, Marsha Barbour, was a First Responder in the aftermath of the Hurricane. Mississippi really did get two for the price of one. Mrs. Barbour rendered assistance where possible and was a second set of eyes and ears on the ground for her Governor/Husband.
Louisiana should be ashamed of its public officials in comparison to those in Mississippi."
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There have been a few memorable posts comparing the exemplary performance of mississippians with the black hole of LA & NO. The MSM has done their damndest to avoid drawing comparisons but there have been some notable exceptions. The WaPo actually did a laudatory style section piece on the Barbours (usually the Washington Post does puff pieces on republicans only when they turn traitor, excuse me "maverick").
There's where you are not correct. NO is below sea level, below the level of the Mississippi River and below the level of Lake Ponchartrain. No insurer will write flood insurance on new projects. Unless the feds provide some guarantee of flood insurance--which they know will someday be another big hit to taxpayers all over the country--much of NO will not be rebuilt.
So the big public issue, which noone talks about, is whether the feds should provide flood insurance for the rebuilding and if so, should they limit the flood insurance to higher places in NO (like the French Quarter) or should US taxpayers foot that bill for the whole city?
It's the same issue as in Malibu. No insurer will write fire insurance for the 3 million dollar homes there that, with some regularity, burn down. The feds end up paying for the damage. Does that make sense?
From a cost benefit analysis, the port of NO is located very strategically. But ports are now computerized and it would not require a city the size of NO to support the port. Wouldn't everyone be better served by not moving a bunch of poor people back into known flood zones at huge expense so they can be flooded out and killed again?
BTW I saw an interview with Marc Morial the other night on Scarborough. Quite a smooth talker, isn't he?
All the while you have Jessie Jackson running around saying don't put them into trailers and Nagin saying ya'll come back right now while not saying where these worker-bees are supposed to live.
Personally, I don't see how they can 'safely' re-inhabit the 9th ward it's so contaminated. I saw a scientist on a program (last week) who said the 9th needs to be returned to marsh land to help protect the levees from this even happening in the future.
I think what LA really needs is strong leadership and it's sorely lacking and all of you are paying the price. It is true many beautiful areas of Mississippi was decimated, too.... yet, the Governor of Mississippi is saying the State will take the lead in the rebuild and they don't need billions and billions of dollars from the feds to do it (he thinks maybe $39 billion -- but nothing like $250 billion).
I think initially getting Donald Trump down there was a joke, but I'm beginning to think it might actually be a good idea.
One other comment -- and none of this is meant as a slam against your LA residents -- something has got to be done about the police department in New Orleans. For years people have heard about the crime and the corrupt department, but now it's been so in the face of the American Public that for the city to really come back people are going to have to know they are safe to visit... ala New York City before and after Rudi... before crime was rampant and visitors were great targets, during his administration tourists grew to feel safe and the numbers surged as a result.
American's are the most generous people on earth, until they feel they are being gouged.
LA isn't alone with these politicians, it just seems that anytime we get a dem in charge these things follow -- I could expound on our crooked governor whom I "hope" is gone in 2006....
I'm ready for a whole slew of new Republican Senators and congressmen... start with the 7 Rinos in the gang of 14... only thing I'm afraid we get rid of Susan Collins and a Dem with a D instead of an R will take her place... along with a few of the others as well.
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