Of all the consequences of Hurricane Katrina on the state of Louisiana, this NY Times article reports on one that I never expected:

State officials assumed that Louisiana’s tax base had been battered by last year’s hurricanes, but the latest figures show that the opposite occurred: more tax dollars than ever are pouring into the state’s coffers as the budget year draws to an end.
The state predicted that tax collections would plunge by almost $900 million this year, and it slashed spending to match. Instead, a record $9.2 billion is on track to be collected by the time the budget year ends on June 30, and at least some of that tax flow looks as if it is likely to continue.

Part of the tax revenue boost has come from increased gambling at casinos and video poker machines located in the state, and higher energy prices has also helped increase tax and state royalty revenue. However, the biggest surge has come from sales taxes as hurricane victims have used federal aid and insurance proceeds to replace personal property. State officials estimate that the state will end up with almost a half-billion more in sales tax revenue than they expected before Katrina.
Meanwhile, the hulks of thousands of damaged cars remain under the highway overpasses of New Orleans as state and federal officials quibble over who will finance the cost of towing the scrap to landfills and scrapyards. And this NY Times article follows up on this earlier post regarding the “breathtaking fraud” that took place in regard to the federal aid that has flowed into the Gulf Coast after last summer’s storms. So it goes in Louisiana.