Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry's Sewerage & Water Board task force has recommended doing away with the current board and creating a "recovery district" to take over governance of New Orleans' drinking water and drainage system. So what comes next?
"This is a very important step," said political analyst Clancy DuBos.
DuBos says the people of New Orleans deserve working drainage and reasonable billing for water. But there are also a lot of questions:
"There are liable to be all sorts of legal and technical issues," he said, like what happens to the board's bond debt -- will those investors be secured? How do you work out the ownership of the Sewerage & Water Board's many physical assets?
"So they've got to dot a lot of 'Is' and cross a lot of 'Ts' when they get into the weeds on this," said DuBos.
The task force has recommended a new board to supersede the current one, with appointees from the governor, New Orleans mayor and city council, and legislative leaders.
