ROUNDUP

expected to meet next week to talk about what Louisiana needs from Congress.

The disaster’s footprint is vast: 20 parishes have some damage; more than 60,000 homes are damaged, many severely; more than 120,000 people have applied for disaster aid. Seventy-five percent of homes are damaged in Livingston Parish alone.

The damage is spread across entire parishes. Many of the people whose homes were inundated didn’t have flood insurance because they weren’t considered to be in a danger zone. FEMA’s maximum award for individuals is $33,000, but the average award is usually much lower.

That will complicate recovery for many families. As the president noted, private donations could help fill in some of those gaps.

“I know how resilient the people of Louisiana are, and I know you will rebuild again,” President Obama said.

We are resilient, and we are disaster-tested. Rebuilding won’t be easy, but we can do it together.

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Lake be a lengthy and challenging recovery for all of us.”

Sen. Conrad Appel, R-Metairie, told The Times-Picayune, he doesn’t know where Edwards will get the money needed for the recovery. The governor has more spending authority during crises.

The state had talked about taking out a short-term loan after three legislative sessions because of cash flow problems. The flooding is expected to make it happen earlier than previously expected.

The federal government will cover 75 percent of the recovery costs and the state will have to pick up the other 25 percent. However, members of the congressional delegation can try to get legislation passed reducing that to 10 percent.

Dardenne also talked about the great response the state has gotten from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). He said it didn’t happen during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.

FEMA has 650 people in the state to help recovery efforts and their number is expected to eventually increase to 1,700.

Flood victims who have registered with FEMA could receive benefits within 24 hours.

State Senate President John Alario, R-Westwego and the state’s longest serving legislator at 45 years, said, “That is the quickest I’ve ever seen that go on. It’s hard to trump that.”

President Obama was also quick to declare the affected parishes disaster areas that reduced wait times for those needing federal help.

Despite the toll taken by disasters like the flooding, there is usually a brighter outcome. Aid pouring into the state stimulates construction and repair booms that lead to increased tax revenues. The newspaper said that is one reason why Standard & Poor’s, one of the country’s major credit rating agencies, chose not to downgrade Louisiana’s credit rating.

Perhaps the best news coming out of the flooding is the tremendous outpouring of support from within the state and around the country. Relief agencies, organizations like United Way, the Red Cross and the Salvation Army and numerous church groups have helped ease some of the agony suffered by those who lose everything they owned.

Public officials from the governor on down have performed admirably during the crisis. State Sen. Ronnie Johns, R-Sulphur, said Edwards “is getting the job done under some incredible challenges and circumstances.”

Neighbors have also helped neighbors deal with unbelievable losses. We commend the many thousands of citizens who have demonstrated Louisiana is made up of people who truly care about others.

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Public spending in Scotland in the last financial year totaled £68.6 billion. Taxes levied in Scotland amounted to just £53.7 billion, a difference of some £15 billion. Were Scotland an independent country, it would have a budget deficit of around 10 per cent of GDP, among the highest in the world. But Scotland is not independent and these are just figures compiled under the so called Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland statistics. They were introduced by the Conservatives in the 1990s before devolution to demonstrate the importance to Scotland of continued membership of the UK. Never has the point been made more starkly.

In a Union, it should not matter that one constituent part has higher spending and lower revenues than another. Fiscal transfers from wealthier to poorer areas are crucial to national and social cohesion. However, the Scottish National Party does not wish to be part of this Union, even though the Scottish people voted two years ago to stay in. There have been mutterings from the SNP about a second referendum following the UK-wide decision to leave the EU because Scotland voted to remain. But the GERS figures show this to be utterly fanciful. Scotland could not survive on its own, certainly not with the levels of expenditure it has now.

The case for independence was predicated on tax revenues from North Sea oil, but Scotland’s share of these fell by 97 per cent to just £60 million in the last financial year. There is no realistic prospect that Scotland would now seek to turn its back on its main export market. Moreover, to get its public finances into the necessary condition to join the EU as an independent nation, as the SNP promises, would require austerity measures that the nationalists would never contemplate.

While sharing resources is fundamental to the Union, the Scottish government, with its new fiscal independence, has a responsibility to live within its means. While there may be pressing social reasons for spending much more per head than in England, political promises by the SNP must take account of their impact on taxpayers elsewhere who do not benefit. This can best be achieved by boosting revenues through economic growth; but the SNP’s policies are unlikely to provide it. Having governed for nine years, the nationalists must accept that Scotland’s problems are their creation, and fixing them is their responsibility.