Mitch Landrieu: “Earlier this year, Christina and Raymond received a letter from their parish government informing them that they must…”

“Earlier this year, Christina and Raymond received a letter from their parish government informing them that they must add $45,000 to their gross income this year. You see, Christina and Raymond's home is located in a flood zone. That is not unusual in Louisiana. Twenty percent of the coastal zone of my state lies below sea level, including 80 percent of our largest city New Orleans. In order to protect their home from rising waters, they applied to their local parish to get flood mitigation assistance to raise their home above the base flood elevation in their area. To qualify, they had to raise $20,000, which they did by refinancing their home, and the parish paid the remaining $45,000 through FEMA's National Flood Insurance Program. What Christina and Raymond did not realize was that at the very same time that they were having this work done on their home, the Internal Revenue Service had decided that FEMA disaster mitigation assistance should be taxable. So now, this couple is going to have to pay taxes on $45,000 even though they never saw a dime of this money.”