Q: What do real estate, waste disposal and payday lending have in common?

A quick analysis of Sen. Edwin Murray’ s campaign finance filings shows cozy relations with several industries that have a vested interest in seeing the city’s master plan die before being enshrined into law. Tomorrow, the first-term senator – and 2010 New Orleans mayoral contender- will introduce a bill that, if passed, would likely do just that.

Among the former state representative’s biggest supporters:

* Metro Disposal CEO Jimmie Woods Metro Disposal’s comptroller Wanda Bergeron also gave $2,500 to Murray.

*Apartment developer Michael R. Vales

*Waste Management company River Birch Inc

*Predatory lender Community Loans of America

The master plan, if passed into law, will limit where waste management companies like River Birch or Metro can dump. New zoning codes determined by the plan will also limit multifamily development in some parts of the city. While the move away from the city’s current method of ad-hoc, market-driven planning most directly impacts multifamily housing developers like Vales, it also raises new questions from companies like Metro that depend on new development to spur business.
River Birch’s $2,500 donation to Murray came through a limited liability corporation owned by company Chief Financial Officer Dominick Fazio. The company owns a massive landfill in Jefferson Parish.

The master plan could also change the lay of the land for storefront lenders like Community Loans of America, which frequently open up shop in areas with high concentrations of poverty and low rents.

Despite the innocuous name, the Georgia-based business is known for sending working-class and poor people spiraling into debt with 300 percent interest-rate loans. In public planning meetings, New Orleanians have said they don’t want predatory lenders like Community Loans in their communities. Planners could ostensibly respond to citizen demands by regulating where these storefront banks operate and putting caps on the number of lending institutions in certain geographic areas.

Murray sponsored Senate Bill 75 after Orleans Parish voters narrowly approved a change to the city charter that gives a citywide master plan the force of law, meaning that all capital expenditures, land use and zoning decisions must conform to it.The bill essentially undermines the charter change amendment by sending the plan back to voters for passage into law.

In a release sent out today, the Bureau of Governmental Research urged legislators to reject the bill. “(SB 75) represents a backdoor attempt to undermine a charter change approved by New Orleanians only seven months ago,” BGR said. The governmental oversight organization argued that Murray’s bill would “dilute accountability by allowing elected and appointed officials to abrogate their responsibility for the outcome of the master planning process.” BGR also warned against other similar bills introduced in the House by New Orleans representatives, saying that these bills could force a situation where planners would have to design a plan that will pass political muster without ruffling any feathers, “rather than one that addresses the grave challenges our city faces.”

The Citizens for One Greater New Orleans has compiled information on the master plan and its opposition on its site