NEW ORLEANS — The Sewerage and Water Board says Thursday’s Louisiana Bond Commission decision to withhold millions of dollars in credit won’t impact day-to-day operations.
At Attorney General Jeff Landry’s request, the commission voted to withhold a $39 million dollar line of credit from the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans because city officials have vowed not to enforce the state’s abortion ban.
Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin called what’s happening in New Orleans "anarchy," and said any city official who won’t enforce the ban should be impeached.
“I am absolutely sending the message to the City of New Orleans, you took an oath. Whether you’re the mayor, whether you’re the sheriff, or whether you’re the council, you don’t get to pick and choose which laws and enforced in the state of Louisiana,” Ardoin said.
Louisiana Treasurer John Schroder, a Republican, said his job isn’t to send a message; it’s to fund policy.
No one in New Orleans has broken the abortion laws, because abortion has been legal in the state while a lawsuit over the trigger laws goes through the court system.
“I take my oaths as serious as anybody. But I don’t like the fact that I do believe we’re playing politics with this, and I don’t like this,” Schroder said.
“I’m just warning everybody. This is a bad, bad road to get on. Because then you start crossing over my duties as the treasurer, the attorney general’s duties, the governor’s duties, and everybody else’s duties. I just don’t like it,” he said.
But Schroder accommodated Landry’s request anyway, voting to defer millions from the city project as a political consequence.
Attorney General Jeff Landry wasn’t at the meeting, but wrote in a statement:
“The same folks who have turned the Crescent City into America’s murder capital by refusing to prosecute violent crime must now choose whether they prioritize playing partisan politics over granting basic amenities for their constituents.”
But the Sewerage and Water Board tells us those basic amenities won’t be affected. They say the funding isn’t even off the table; just deferred to next month.
The $39 million would help fund the multi-year West Power Complex project which would fortify power to the pumps that drain New Orleans.
Deferring the line of credit, though, may slow down contracts for the work. It will not immediately impact day to day operations, like turning pumps on after a storm.
Christy Harowski with the Sewerage and Water Board spoke to the commission before the vote. When asked what a deferment would do to the project, she said,
“All we can do is try to move forward the best we can so we can get this done before hurricane season in 2024," she said.
Mayor LaToya Cantrell didn’t back down from her stance on abortion, writing in a statement after the commission’s decision:
"It is disappointing and appalling that the Louisiana Bond Commission decided to halt funding for one of the most vital and valuable infrastructure projects, despite the fact that the right to an abortion remains legal statewide.”
Cantrell says she’s committed to improving aging infrastructure, though flood lines and party lines may be slowing down the big picture.
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