Louisiana will reimburse FEMA only 88%

The Yahoo article is reprinted here in its entirety, because their stuff seems to disappear into a black hole after a while:

BATON ROUGE, La. - Louisiana's legislative auditor recommended Friday that the state pay 88 percent of what the
Federal Emergency Management Agency is seeking in reimbursement for hurricane recovery efforts, saying the rest of the money was either improperly spent or couldn't be accounted for.

After getting approval from a legislative budget panel, state officials planned Friday to wire that 88 percent — $335 million — to FEMA.

It was unclear how the state would deal with the remaining money, about $45 million, that FEMA says it is owed.

Legislative Auditor Steve Theriot said in some instances people with invalid addresses or duplicate homes received FEMA benefits that they shouldn't have. The state also objected to payments FEMA made to people for generators, a cost Theriot said it doesn't appear the state ever backed as a type of disaster aid.

States are required to pick up part of the cost for certain types of FEMA disaster aid, including assistance for individuals like medical care, funeral services and property damage after a disaster.

Lawmakers set aside a $424 million but asked Theriot's office to investigate FEMA's bills before making payments. Theriot's review was based on a sample of 425 of the nearly 290,000 people who received FEMA aid after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit the state last year.

After Katrina, FEMA reimbursed for chainsaws. They reimbursed for generators - which the state of Louisiana doesn't want to pay FEMA for.

Nice going, Blanco [sarcasm]. Can't say I like your attitude. It does not seem very extravagant to me, a generator for people staying in their homes after the storm, and a chainsaw to help them clean up.

I wonder if FEMA is going to come after the recipients of that assistance and make them pay the money back.