Last March, Gov. Jeff Landry's homeland security agency told Louisiana taxpayers for $52 million the state spent to beef up security in New Orleans and temporarily shelter homeless residents during the winter tourist season.
They hoped the federal government, months after a Bourbon Street attack exposed local security flaws, would pick up the tab instead. But that didn’t happen, according to public records obtained by the Times-Picayune this week.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has no money to reimburse Louisiana’s costs associated with Super Bowl LIX and Mardi Gras 2025, a Department of Homeland Security senior official wrote to Louisiana National Guard Major General Thomas Friloux in June.
While the state could have used its existing, unspent FEMA grants to reimburse its costs, there was no unspent cash to use, he said.
“FEMA does not have additional funding available to supplement the existing ... grant awards," wrote David Richardson, an assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security on June 13.
In a statement Wednesday, Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness spokesperson Mike Steele did not comment on the denial.
"The success of last year’s Super Bowl and Mardi Gras events is remarkable. Louisiana, along with our state, local and federal partners, was able to quickly enhance safety measures following the New Year’s Day terror attacks, while safely welcoming hundreds of thousands of visitors to the New Orleans region,” he said.
"It was worth the investment considering the fact LSU researchers say the impact from the Super Bowl alone was $1.25 billion," Steele said.
The proposed reimbursement was sought to cover overtime pay for state police and Louisiana National Guard troops who manned checkpoints around the French Quarter – security the state deemed necessary highlighted gaps in city resources.
So too, was it supposed to cover the Landry’s administration erected ahead of the events for the homeless population living downtown, Steele said in March.
The relocation of homeless residents drew criticism for its cost from local officials, who said the state’s money could have been better spent on moving people into permanent housing.
When Landry’s shelter closed in late March, 108 people had been moved from there and into subsidized housing. State officials did not provide a tally of how many people remain housed when asked this week.
Steele said amid that criticism that he was “optimistic” the reimbursement would happen, and his then-boss, Jacques Thibodeaux, said in a March letter to the feds that the state's security efforts "played a key role in filling gaps in the federal mission of safely conducting" Super Bowl and Mardi Gras.
A spokesperson for Mayor Helena Moreno did not respond to a request for comment on the denial. A spokesperson for councilmember Lesli Harris, who has been a vocal critic of the state’s spending on the temporary homeless shelter, also did not respond to a request for comment.
The letter identified more than $43.5 million in equipment and services costs and more than $8.6 million in personnel costs that it sought reimbursement for, adding up to a total of just over $52 million. The majority of those funds would have reimbursed GOHSEP, with smaller amounts sought to pay back the the state Department of Public Safety and Wildlife and Fisheries departments, and the Louisiana National Guard. The letter did not mention the specific security measures— like the homeless shelter— that these agencies had undertaken.
But Richardson wrote in the June letter to Major General Thomas Friloux of the Louisiana National Guard that FEMA does not have a grant program "for the exclusive purpose of providing funding to jurisdictions engaged in planning and operations for SEAR events."
Super Bowl LIX was granted a level one Special Event Assessment Rating (SEAR), the highest potential threat rating the government can assign to an event, as is typical for that event. Mardi Gras was upgraded to a SEAR 1 rating following the Jan. 1 terrorist attack.
Though other unspent FEMA money could have covered the cost of the event with FEMA’s approval, if it existed, the state eventually determined “all current grant funding is fully committed to state and parish level projects," Richardson wrote in the June letter.