S&WB given catch basin maintenance, but initially little funding

By Christopher Tidmore
Contributing Writer

As far as Orleans Parish is concerned, the most critical change made during the 2024 Regular Legislative Session centered around transferring control of street drainage and catch basins from the City of New Orleans to the Sewerage & Water Board. However, the Legislature initially did so without giving S&WB sufficient monies to pay for the new responsibility.

Many may wonder why the streets of New Orleans so consistently flood. In truth, there are a number of reasons, but the most pressing centers around the fact that the City budget dedicates very little money to clean up catch basins or keep the street-level drains clear. Estimates put the price tag of clearing the runoff blockages at more than $30 million per year. In contrast, Orleans Parish spends $1.5 million in a good year, less when the fiscal situation tightens.

Two weeks ago, this led Sewerage & Water Board member Janet Howard to query at a public meeting whether the cash-strapped agency – which she oversees – would be gaining any revenue to deal with the added responsibilities. Forty-six minutes into the May 22 gathering of the S&WB directors, Howard expressed an openness to Sen. Jimmy Harris’ legislation SB305, which would transfer surface level drainage to S&WB’s purview, yet she wondered how the agency would pay for it.

Despite press reports that SB305 granted guaranteed funding, the bill (as it existed at the time of the board meeting) merely required the City to transfer an amount equal to what it spent on drainage in 2023, a fraction of the need. Transferring additional amounts stood at the discretion of New Orleans City Council. Howard queried at the Board meeting “whether the S&WB had made its concerns clear to Senator Harris” and “whether the S&WB had the flexibility to decline the new responsibility if adequate funding were not forthcoming.”

She saw the logic in combining all drainage responsibilities under one governmental agency; though, Howard wondered how the S&WB would assume such a huge responsibility (estimated to be in excess of $30 million) without guaranteeing adequate funding – a legitimate concern of a director of the Board. She noted that the S&WB’s “other funding sources are both woefully inadequate and dedicated to other purposes.”

Contrary to some media speculation, these concerns, along with the efforts of state Rep. Stephanie Hilferty and N.O. Councilmember Joe Giarrusso, helped lead to a late-in- the-session piece of legislation redirecting Orleans traffic-camera fines to drainage. It addressed the funding deficit – at least in part.

Still (according to FOX8 as of May 7, 2024), while the City of New Orleans is owed $135,002,518.56 in unpaid traffic-camera tickets, only 63 percent of those have been paid since 2019. No guarantee exists that past fines will be dedicated to the drainage problem, though the city did budget $23.1 million from the red light/speed cameras in 2023. That does not mean that the city collected even that much. Revenue showing up in the CaFR [Comprehensive Annual Financial Report] would not be net of the current uncollectibles. In truth, many payments of traffic camera tickets often only come when the offenders’ vehicles are booted. Will the city continue to boot cars for the Sewerage & Water Board – an independent state agency?

Revenues could plummet if they do not.

This article originally published in the June 10, 2024 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.