La. coastal restoration spending plan proposed

Louisiana would spend $923 million on hurricane protection and coastal restoration projects during fiscal year 2013, including $161 million to pay part of the state’s share of the upgraded New Orleans area hurricane levee system and $23 million toward the Morganza to the Gulf levee protecting Houma, according to a draft plan presented to the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority. The Times-Picayune reports the annual spending plan is highly dependent on two sources of money: $367 million already set aside by the Legislature for levee and restoration projects from 2008 and 2009 state budget surpluses, and a less-sure $267 million the state expects to receive from “early restoration” payments by BP to address damage from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill under the federal Natural Resource Damage Assessment process. The plan document points out that the BP money is still speculative; BP has so far committed to an early restoration payment of $1 billion, of which Louisiana is guaranteed only $100 million. But Drue Banta, an attorney leading the state’s damage assessment team, says the state expects to receive between $400 million and $600 million of the early money. Indeed, the plan includes $270 million in BP money as part of its estimated fiscal year 2014 revenue. Get the full story on the spending proposal and see specific projects it would fund here.