(C) Verite News New Orleans This story was originally published by Verite News New Orleans and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Can the legislature fix the New Orleans Sewerage & Water Board? [1] ['Robert Collins', 'More Robert Collins', 'Verite News'] Date: 2024-04-09 The agency in charge of using its complex pumping system to keep the city dry after thunderstorms and hurricanes, as well as provide clean, safe water to residents, is once again under fire. The Governor’s Task Force on the Sewerage & Water Board released its report, resulting in a flurry of bills filed in the State Legislature before the April 2 deadline to file during the current regular session. The bills cover a broad variety of issues, including governance, drainage and billing. The most controversial S&WB bill, HB 941, filed by Representative Alonzo Knox, calls for a temporary state takeover of the current board. It seeks to carry out one of the recommendations of the Landry Task Force. The Knox bill proposes to replace the current board of ten members appointed by the mayor and one member from the City Council, with a recovery district board where the mayor would only make one appointment. The other ten appointees would come from the governor, State Legislature, City Council, the business group GNO, Inc., and several other public officials and government agencies. Each person or agency would only get one appointment. The Knox bill is opposed by several members of the City Council and has not gained any traction in the Legislature. One bill that has gained traction is SB 305, filed by Senator Jimmy Harris. His bill proposes to consolidate the city’s drainage system entirely under the S&WB. Under the current system, the city’s 72,000 catch basins and small pipes are maintained by the Department of Public Works. Once rainwater passes through catch basins and small pipes by gravity into the active city pumping system, it becomes the responsibility of the S&WB. The system was unified until 1991, when the voters declined to renew a S&WB drainage tax, resulting in the catch basins being taken over by the Department of Public Works. Many residents argue this made the system less efficient and contributed to increases in street flooding. While there is a consensus among both local and state officials that the system should be unified, the sticking point is money. The S&WB estimates that it would require an additional $25 million per year added to its operating budget to maintain the system adequately. The Harris bill does not specify a funding source, so there is more work to be done. Two additional bills cleared committee hearings and were sent to the full House floor for debate this week. They both seek solutions to what ratepayers consider an epidemic of inaccurate and inflated bills coming from S&WB. Representative Matthew Willard authored HB 525, which would eliminate the current practice of estimated billing, and require an in-person reading of a customer’s physical water meter before a bill can be issued. Representative Stefanie Hilferty filed HB 574, which would give customers the option of receiving a fixed bill, based on an average of recent bills, while waiting for the S&WB to complete its current multi-year process of replacing manual meters with automatic electronic meters that can keep track of usage in real time. The Hilferty bill would also set up a new arbitration process for customers to dispute inaccurate bills. Arbitrators would be appointed by the State Legislative Auditor and City Inspector General and be available in each council district to hear disputes from customers. Governor Landry remains the wildcard in the current session as it relates to the S&WB. He has been silent so far, but if he publicly throws his support behind a bill or set of bills, they could move to full passage quickly. Regardless of whether or not drainage and billing issues can be solved in the current legislative session, the S&WB challenges of having old, obsolete and decaying physical infrastructure will remain. Most political observers believe that any increase in revenue from state sources will come with strings attached, including the ability of the governor to make some appointments to the board. In addition, every fiscal study of the board conducted in recent years has argued that a new local revenue source is needed, perhaps from a storm water fee. Given the board’s current public image problem, convincing the voters to pass such a fee will be difficult. The Sewerage & Water Board would be best served by working with the legislative delegation to bring about these proposed reforms, and improve their public image, which will be needed in future requests to the voters. Related Republish This Story Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license. [END] --- [1] Url: https://veritenews.org/2024/04/09/can-the-legislature-fix-the-new-orleans-sewerage-water-board/ Published and (C) by Verite News New Orleans Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 US. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/veritenews/