Mayor LaToya Cantrell on Monday vetoed $20 million New Orleans had promised for renovations to Charity Hospital, deepening a feud over the city’s right to proceeds from a donated swath of oil-rich Louisiana coastline.
The city’s $20 million pledge to Tulane University, which plans to turn the long-vacant Depression-era hospital into a new research center, emerged from negotiations over who should receive proceeds from the 38,000-acre plot around Port Fourchon, which is owned by the Wisner Trust. Tulane is one of several legacy recipients of proceeds from that land.
Late philanthropist Edward Wisner donated the land to New Orleans in 1914.
But for years, Cantrell resisted attempts by the City Council to solidify city control over around $9 million the plot generates each year. She has sided with Wisner’s descendants, fighting to maintain a system that gave the mayor and a private panel broad authority to divvy up the proceeds among a list of longstanding recipients, including the heirs, the city, Tulane, LSU and the Salvation Army.
The council’s $20 million pledge followed a judge’s order in late May identifying the city as the trust’s sole recipient. It formed part of a broader deal meant to end the legal feud and solidify plans for renovations to Charity Hospital, which has sat vacant since Hurricane Katrina in 2005…