Agency: New Orleans Hasn't Claimed $600M

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin often complains about how slowly his city gets federal hurricane recovery money, but figures released Thursday show that nearly $600 million is available — if only Nagin would request it.

New Orleans and the city's agencies have received nearly $300 million of the recovery money promised by FEMA — 96 percent of the $311 million that the city has formally requested since Hurricane Katrina struck 16 months ago, according to data released by the state homeland security office, which distributes the money.

That leaves over $595 million in federal money that is available to the city but has not been requested, said Col. Jeff Smith, chief of the homeland security office. Once the proper documentation is submitted, the money is available for replacing city property and structures damaged or ruined in Katrina and its aftermath, such as police cars and buses, the city jail, roads, and the sewer and water systems.

Smith called a news conference Thursday partly to rebut Nagin's complaints, though he refrained from openly blaming the mayor and his aides.

"They've got a huge task before them," Smith said.

A Nagin spokesman, David Robinson-Morris, disputed the state's numbers, calling them "untrue."

Nagin is in New York this week, trying to get financial support from nongovernmental groups: Wall Street firms and foundations that might provide loans or grants for a new criminal justice system and the reconstruction of city buildings and other storm-damaged infrastructure, his office said.

He released a statement earlier this week saying "We will continue to pursue money that we deserve and need from higher levels of government, but we can't wait for that to continue our work to get the city back on track."

Nagin has been in a running argument with Gov. Kathleen Blanco over distribution of the recovery money, which comes out of her office via the homeland security agency. Blanco has said Nagin's office has difficulty understanding the process through which federal aid flows and has urged Nagin staff to be more "hands on."

Last month, at a Washington news conference, Nagin suggested the government was not meeting its legal obligations to help the city recover. He called the procedures through which the city had to go for housing and infrastructure dollars "a bureaucratic maze."

But Smith on Thursday noted that the city had to return money to the federal government last summer because recovery cash had sat in the bank, unspent, for so long. The city was forced to return $1.7 million in interest on $102 million in federal grant money that was meant for debris removal and other projects, Smith said. The $1.7 million was returned because it's illegal for the city to collect interest on federal relief money.

In all, the state homeland security office has distributed $2 billion, in about 12,500 payments, around the state since Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, according to the agency.

Mark Smith, a homeland security spokesman, said the agency is certain its figures are correct.

Nagin's office "can dispute the numbers all they want," Smith said. "We've got the data to back it up."