NAACP: Displaced voters face poll tax in New Orleans election (White Candidates Vie to Unseat Mayor)

NAACP: Displaced voters face poll tax in New Orleans election
By CAIN BURDEAU
Associated Press Writer
March 23. 2006 7:09PM

NEW ORLEANS - Up to 13,000 displaced residents would have to make costly trips to New Orleans to vote if the city holds elections as scheduled on April 22, advocacy groups said Thursday.

The NAACP and other groups are complaining that an emergency election plan drawn up by the state will disenfranchise large numbers of blacks and have the effect of a poll tax - a voting fee that was banned after it was abused in the South to disenfranchise blacks.

The filings by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and other advocacy groups came in a case before U.S. District Judge Ivan Lemelle over how and when this city's legacy-making election should take place. Lemelle approved the election plan in January and has so far rebuffed previous plans to derail the election.

The plea, filed earlier this week and discussed Thursday at a news conference in New Orleans, focuses on laws that would require displaced voters to show up in person for the election rather than vote by mail.

Voter registration records show that as of Feb. 15 about 13,000 first-time voters registered by mail and, under state law, those people would have to vote in person, the documents say.

The lawyers for the groups say such provisions force people to pay for tickets to come to New Orleans and to incur expenses such as meals and hotel rooms. That, the pleading reads, is the "modern equivalent of a poll tax and would result in outright vote denial."

White Candidates Vie to Unseat New Orleans Mayor
19 Hope to Be City's First White Mayor in 30 Years

Louisiana Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu is one of 19 white candidates running for mayor of New Orleans. (John Bazemore/AP Photo)

March 23, 2006 — The local pundits in New Orleans believe the city is about to elect its first white mayor in 30 years.

Mitch Landrieu, Louisiana's current lieutenant governor, is a top contender. He's the son of the last white mayor and the brother of U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu.

But Landrieu is concerned that many white voters are supporting him just because they want a white person back in charge at city hall.

"If you're voting for me for that reason, vote for somebody else," he said.

There are 19 other white mayoral candidates to choose from, more than anyone can remember in one election. Each of them say they decided to run after Mayor Ray Nagin declared New Orleans would be a majority black city once again.

"This city will be chocolate at the end of the day," Nagin said in a controversial Martin Luther King Day speech, for which he later apologized.

Since Hurricane Katrina, the majority of residents who now live in New Orleans are white. Many of them said they are fed up. "I think that they need to get a new mayor in here," one man told ABC News.

"I think some of his [Nagin's] comments and remarks, you know, were offensive to a lot of people," he said. "I just kind of made the race wide open now."

City's Changing Complexion

Excerpt. More @ http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/HurricaneKatrina/story?id=1760810&page=1&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

Is Entergy New Orleans Out of Power?
New Orleans
3/23/2006 Home : State
By Christopher Tidmore

A source close to the Board of Directors of Entergy reveals to Bayoubuzz.com that the power utility may just walk away from its New Orleans subsidiary if a large federal grant does not bail that company out. Entergy New Orleans has determined that it needs $718 million in federal help to pay the costs of rebuilding electricity and natural gas systems, as well as adjust for the long-term prospect of fewer customers that could otherwise result in drastic rate increases.

The senior source, who asked not to be named, told this website that discussions are underway to turn back the utility infrastructure to the City of New Orleans and absolve the parent company of any electric responsibilities in the Crescent City. "We´ve lost money in New Orleans for years...As long as the other parts of the company were doing well, we could afford a money losing subsidiary like New Orleans. Now, the bill is just too high."

As a consequence, Entergy might also move its corporate headquarters out of New Orleans, perhaps out of the state.

Legally, the insider revealed, the parent company is responsible only to Entergy New Orleans´ bond holders and stock holders, not to the citizens of the city. Those, he indicated, would be made hole with either cash or parent company stocks or bonds. "But," he continued, "you can´t force a company to do business."

Under the unique regulatory relationship that the state constitution provides, the Public Service Commission is responsible for the entire state except Orleans Parish. By quirk of history, the City Council of New Orleans is the prime regulator of utilities in the parish. That means, there is no recourse that the PSC could take to retaliate legally against Entergy.

In any of the more than 22 parishes that constitute Entergy Louisiana, refusal to repair damage in one parish could allow the PSC to threaten to yank the lucrative contract from all. However, the separate regulatory relationship of Orleans Parish does not provide the PSC with that power. Even if state regulators desired to undertake such an action, Entergy Louisiana could argue that it has continued to fulfill its repair and power responsibilities in full. Entergy New Orleans is a separate company. There are no grounds on which the PSC could hold Entergy Louisiana responsible.

The move could affect the status of New Orleans´ only Fortune 500 headquarters. "We can´t stay in a city in which we don´t operate," the source told Bayoubuzz.com. Discussions have ranged from moving to Jefferson Parish to taking a lease in Downtown Baton Rouge. But, there is also a move afoot, according to the source, to stay in the company’s temporary perch of Jackson, Mississippi.

Less than two weeks after Katrina, Entergy took over the former WorldCom building, thanks to the intersession of Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour. Entergy Gulf States provides most of Mississippi´s power.

Literally, just days after the storm, Barbour used his influence to gain Entergy access to the WorldCom building. The company reportedly paid premium rates, but the staff had a new headquarters to call home without major displacement. Some reportedly argue that another move could be detrimental to the overall morale of Entergy‘s headquarters staff.

While not pushing the issue, the Governor of Mississippi has reportedly indicated in a polite manner that he would like Entergy to stay in Jackson permanently--and would do anything that he could to make that happen.

As the Associated Press has reported, Entergy New Orleans currently operates on $90 million in loans provided by its parent company with another $20 million on the way. The unit is in federal bankruptcy protection. Before Katrina, its customer base had 190,000 electricity and 145,000 gas consumers. According to a Census Bureau report released last week, New Orleans had 454,863 people just before Katrina hit on Aug. 29. Current state estimates put the tally at around 189,000 residents.

Entergy New Orleans tallied the damage to its power system at $271 million. The gas system, which sustained flooding by 4 million gallons of corrosive saltwater, will have to be largely replaced at a cost of $355 million, the unit said.

Entergy New Orleans also is asking for $320 million to cover its lost revenue base through 2007, along with $22 million for other Katrina-related expenses. The unit is subtracting an estimated $250 million in insurance proceeds that it said will be dedicated to rebuilding the gas system. As the AP noted, Entergy New Orleans said that Katrina-related damage -- without aid -- totals about $8,943 for each of its remaining customers -- 33 times higher than the cost-per-customer rate incurred for four hurricanes that hit Florida in 2004.

http://www.bayoubuzz.com/articles.aspx?aid=6576

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