T’bonne levee board seeks millions owed by state

For the most part, the Terrebonne Levee and Conservation District received good marks on its latest audit report. However, for officials knee-deep in paperwork, millions in missing reimbursement money is troubling.

Report findings show the state, overburdened by a swarm of contracts and agreements, has lagged in issuing the levee board more than $9 million in reimbursements, according to officials.

Some requests sent to the state were nearly six-months old and others could have been close to one-year, said Dan Tucker, the board’s audit director, at a regular board meeting last Tuesday.

A flood of post-Katrina projects being conducted in the New Orleans area has recently swamped industry officials, creating problems for a rapidly growing levee project known as Morganza to the Gulf.

“We’re not only competing for money, we’re competing for the lawyers’ time in Baton Rouge,” said Terrebonne Levee and Conservation District Executive Director Reggie Dupre.

In order for reimbursements to be processed, a cooperative endeavor agreement (CEA) between the board and the state must be finalized. Currently, Terrebonne is living in the past, as the board is still referencing an agreement drafted in 2003, which has created multiple funding barriers.

“A lot of it has to do with us moving so quickly on all these other projects. If particular components of what we’re doing were not covered in the old 2003 agreement, they’re going to be held back,” noted Dupre.

In order to keep the train moving, the levee board is pressing officials in Baton Rouge to take a look at a new CEA.

“That’s the main holdup, is the attorneys of the state are reviewing the agreement and [typically] that has not caught up with the reimbursement requests,” he added.

Jimmy Degate, the board’s attorney, submitted a new CEA to the state nearly three weeks ago, said Dupre. “But they haven’t responded with changes.”

And with the state scaling back to avoid a budget crisis, auditors remain worried. The lack of attention to the issue could also prove damaging to Morganza’s progress, explained Tucker. Thing’s could flip-flop in an instant.

“It’s fine now. There’s not a wolf outside that’s going to blow the house down tomorrow. But as we get on with Morganza and the building projects, you can’t let the state linger in reimbursement requests. We’re going to run out of money,” he warned the levee board.

As talks continue between industry officials, Dupre said he is almost certain the issue will be resolved relatively soon.

But new problems could be on the horizon, as recent studies have caused the price tag on larger stretches of the Morganza project to increase.

The interim plan between Pointe-aux-Chenes and Bayou Dularge will eat more than $250 million, once constructions costs, land rights, mitigation and pipeline relocation are added.

“The figures to build that far exceeds the available cash,” explained Dupre. “Even with future revenues, in the next three years locally, your looking at [getting] about $150 million. I’m not that much of a magician to make $150 million equal $265 million.”

When the time comes – which most likely will be sometime in 2011 – the levee board will be reaching out to the state for help, he said. Officials could also be asking locals to approve additional funding measures in the future.