Dumb: Putting taxpayers at financial risk by encouraging new development in a deep floodplain. Dumber: The federal government reimbursing locals to do so.

Yet Congress is currently considering spending $10 million to reimburse a Sacramento flood control agency for levee construction which allows 67,000 people to move into a high-risk floodplain. Federal taxpayers would also be on the hook for future flood-bailout costs because residents will not be required to purchase flood insurance. The reimbursement proposal for the levees around the Natomas basin is currently in conference committee.

The Natomas Basin is a “bathtub” surrounded by water, where flood levels average 15 feet. According to the Sacramento Bee, “Much of it is very low-lying farmland practically ringed by high-flowing rivers and there are fewer escape routes than other parts of the city, should a levee break occur.” The basin contains some of the few remaining undeveloped areas in Sacramento and has been coveted for years by developers who now will get to build in these flood-prone areas.

Not only does federal repayment for the levees defy common sense, but it also contradicts federal law and lessons learned from previous floods.

A 1993 law specifically prohibits spending federal funds on Natomas Basin levees in a manner that “encourage[s] development of deep floodplains.” However, Natomas levee construction clearly promotes such development. After locals completed levee enlargement, the city of Sacramento ended its prohibition on residential building in the Natomas basin.

Furthermore, a comprehensive study of floodplain management commissioned by President Clinton in the wake of the Great Flood of 1993 warned against inappropriate use of floodplains.

For further information contact Gary Estes in the Sacramento area at (916) 889-9025.

Highway Pork

With the ink barely dry on the balanced budget agreement, highway-pork king, Bud Shuster (R-PA), wants to spend $34 billion more on transportation and wreck the agreement. No wonder taxpayers are cynical.

“Waste Basket” in Readers’ Digest

The September issue of Readers’ Digest reprints, in full, the May 27, 1997 “Waste Basket”, covering the University of North Carolina’s basketball booster bypass.

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