The Louisiana Bond Commission voted today to withhold tens of millions of dollars for Supderdome renovations and a wide variety of other projects in New Orleans.
The panel refused to approve money for Children's Hospital, City Park, LSU Dental School, Southern University New Orleans, NOCCA, the Port of New Orleans, the VA Hospital, the Ferry Terminal, Odyssey House and others.
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It was a clear lashing out at the COVID-19 policies of New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell and the New Orleans Saints.
The debate over the money focused on the Saints.
Senate President Page Cortez introduced a motion to withhold nearly $28 million for upgrading the Dome because of the Saints policy on ticket refunds for season ticket holders who do not want to get a COVID vaccine or provide a negative COVID test to attend games.
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"I'd like to make a motion to exclude the $2.862 million cash line of credit for LSED improvements to the Superdome... and I'd also like to exclude the $25 million non cash line of credit for LSED improvement for the Superdome project... so that we can have a little more time to discuss what their policy is going to be moving forward," Cortez moved.
Governor John Bel Edwards' Executive Counsel Matthew Block objected.
"This is an appropriation to a state facility. This is not an appropriation to the Saints," he argued.
His objection fell mostly on deaf ears.
Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry complained that while the Saints are allowing season ticket holders to get their money back, they are requiring them to forfeit future seasons.
He insisted season ticket holders should be allowed to rollover their money to next season.
"And of course that would require something like those season ticket holders may forfeit their tickets for this year, but still stay in the season ticket position that they were in."
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The Saints did allow that last year, but in their announcement of the new policy today, did not keep that option.
"Last season, we made the decision to offer refunds or rollover accounts to the following season because we knew government regulations would not allow us to fulfill a full season of attendance. This is not the case this season," Saints Senior Vice President Greg Bensel said in a statement. "Based on current city and state regulations allowing full capacity, we did not plan to offer refunds for season tickets, as has been our standard policy. We have received less than 120 requests for ticket refunds as of this morning."
Bensel suggested fans who do not want to attend games this season sell their seats on the secondary ticket market. If they choose not to do that, they can give up their seats and get their money back.
"Those seeking a refund should reach out to their ticket representative by the deadline of Tuesday, August 24 at 4:00 pm CT. At their request, we will cancel their accounts and provide a refund. Those tickets will then be immediately offered for purchase to our wait list. Every effort will be made to expedite this process due to the start of the home season next week."
After the vote to withhold the Dome funding passed the Bond Commission, Representative Jerome Zeringue called for delaying tens of millions of dollars in funding on a laundry list of projects in New Orleans.
Despite a request from Block, Zeringue did not say why he wanted to withhold tens of millions of dollars for projects at facilities including Children's Hospital, City Park, LSU Dental School, Southern University New Orleans, NOCCA, the Port of New Orleans, the old VA Hospital, the Ferry Terminal, Odyssey House, and Holy Rosary Institute.
The motion, however, came amid the discussion about the city and the Saints COVID policies.
"It didn't take long to figure out what's going on here," Block noted.
He stressed the delay could cause problems with ongoing projects and delay payments to private contractors.
Without further comment, the Bond Commission voted to hold off on funding for all of the projects in New Orleans until at least next month.