The rent is too damn high

And going up

NEW ORLEANS -- The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency says people who buy federal flood insurance need to plan for big rate hikes.

Craig Fugate says some people now paying hundreds of dollars a year could wind up paying thousands of dollars a year. That's because Congress has ordered the program to pay for itself.

And this has been your regular installment of Feds Tell New Orleans To Suck It.

Previously on FTNOTSI:

Turner and fellow members of the flood protection authority don’t share that confidence. “Barge gate” has become a four-letter word as the corps prepares to hand over the keys and responsibility for operation and maintenance of the system by June 1, the onset of the 2013 hurricane season.

Their complaints are numerous: The corps backed off the operational parameters originally promised for the barge gate; closing it takes too long and is too complicated; and, by the way, it has never been closed without breaking.

“Other than that,” Turner said with a rueful laugh, “we love it.”

And, on an earlier episode, our heroes were left to operate and pay to maintain their broken system all by their lonesomes. 

By the June 1 start of hurricane season, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will be handing over the keys to the $14 billion hurricane protection system it has built around metro New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina. Yet as the deadline approaches, the agency responsible for the East Bank flood defense—the South Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East—knows that the eye-popping $34 million annual bill it will soon face is beyond its means, and possible solutions are blocked by state and congressional politics.

The costs include $14 million for annual operation and maintenance of the system – a figure that does not include future levee raising — as well as $20 million a year for the next 30 years as part of the state’s cost-share for the whole project.

Rent keeps going higher and damn higher.